#I feel like I should group the non-story related characters so people can find them more

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

also, not quite related to Great Hate but is related to some stuff said therein; I don't think any of the Skarloey/Arlesdale/Culdee Fell books are bad (honestly i rate them all very highly) buuuuuut if there was ever another attempt to adapt the books for television or television-adjacent-media, I would probably just opt to cut the non-North Western Railway stories out entirely. (the railways wouldn't be straight up Not Canon, there just wouldn't be episodes based on the stories about them.) They're a bit of a narrative cul-de-sac in terms of the overarching story of The Books, and while they are all excellent I feel like the opportunity cost of adapting those instead of expanding on the existing North Western stuff would be too high... Insult to injury is that by doing this, you don't really impact the North Western stories at all besides a little bit of Oliver the Western Engine's content and that can be adapted around (as has been done before...)

Ooh. You make a compelling point about how you could have a very good adaptation by cutting out the smaller-railway stuff.

At minimum, if one did not want to take their literary axe that far, the writers should very much take the opportunity to come up with a better way to manage the narrative of the multiple railways. I agree it's a big weakness that the RWS flips back and forth after introducing other railways — it doesn't always feel like all these books are in the same series and the going back and forth can be jarring. It's understandable, since Awdry was constrained by writing them in the order than he created them. But with distance there is a chance to reconceive things in a better way.

TVS Series 4, I think, made a vast improvement by grouping all the narrow-gauge stuff together — showing the Duke rescue before Peter Sam's and Sir Handel's S.R. breaking-in is awkward, of course, but having a whole half-season devoted to the narrow-gauge railways helps the narrative flow immensely. Sadly I think for the rest of the TVS they fall into the same choppy waters Awdry did. Obviously plenty of people do like the narrow-gauge episodes despite all, but they are definitely not set to best advantage when a handful of them feel kinda randomly sprinkled within the other stories. The improvement TVS continues to make however is finding ways for "the big engines" and "the little engines" to interact, as in creating more and more locations with mixed gauges.

Anyway your idea of a fresh television adaptation of the RWS is so enticing. My ideal series would be 30-minute adult-TV-esque episode dramas (hey, we're dreaming). You could have a significant number of episodes that take a birds'-eye view of Sodor rail and, instead of being organized around One Character Gets Put in a Situation, are organized by some new development (a new service, coal shortage, dieselisation, key person retires, labour strike, etc.), then you can have an A and a B plot on two different railways and see the fallout.

(Usually the North Western would be one of the two railways in focus, just coz a lion's share of industrial activity and travel on the island is going through them. But can you imagine how cool and special an episode it would be to have a Depression-era episode where we see the Skarloey and Mid Sodor Railways trying to pluckily adapt and eke out their survival? And we could see the Skarloey, who seemed to be in the more precarious position at the beginning, still squeaking through at the end with one engine, one engineer, etc., and downer ending! at the very end we see the Mid Sodor is ruined. Cue silent montage of putting up "Closed" signs and boarding up windows and selling off Falcon and Stuart over sad music.)

It would, indeed, necessitate coming up with original plots, especially for the smaller railways (even if, again, the North Western probably will get a big share of screen time), but the fandom has shown that there's plenty to be done there. However, the goal is to cover all the classic RWS stories — just putting them into a larger context and thinking about the island's arc over the course of a season. Fleshing out the dramatic bits of lore.

The openers for most of the episodes would be, like, a little slice-of-life showing miners or dockers or farmers or housewives going about their life for a minute or two until the Pressing Need is shown and a hint of what the railways are gonna do about it appears; a bunch of men in top hats and tails shaking hands over some new venture; new track is being laid; or some piece of news reaches Sodor and then! opening theme song and then we cut to our engines <3

#so sorry jamie's ask just sent me on a 20 minute daydream and i was typing all the while #if this makes no sense kindly just ignore it... i'm having a great time watching my new favorite imaginary television show #chatter #the railway series

[planefood]

hi. i might be going crazy but if i'm not and i recall correctly; a couple months back or so you made a post talking about why you chose the city you did for your ocs and why it didn't take place in america. as a non american who fell into the weirdly common thing of making ocs that are american i really resonated with that post, i've been looking around for it and i can't find it. so i wanted to ask if you deleted it? it's 100% fine if you did i get it. i just want to know if its gone or i should keep looking around for it because of infamous tumblr search broken. thanks :-)

Okay this is tough because my tumblr has a tendency to just, hide posts of mine in the archive or tags (grrr) but I also delete posts a lot if I feel like I was overly emotional in them or if its just stupid tagging garbage but I might've deleted it because I wrote that when I was really upset, I know a lot of people related to it though so i'm really sorry to you guys! I might rewrite it more succinctly if I have the energy but the point in that old post still stands I suppose Sometimes I worry I come across as too patriotic or even, god forbid... "kiwiana" kitsch which would be a NIGHTMARE for me even if most of my followers wouldn't notice something like that. I also don't wanna give off the impression that my work is only for a small population or that I "hate americans" if I don't word it well enough. I probably only feel an obligation to write how I do because I fought so hard feeling recognised for my background after I moved here that feeling it happen again when I speak to people outside of NZ stresses me out. I'm glad other people resonated with it! But me getting so emotional over it isn't what I'd call a typical reaction idk. Really its more out of frustration, I feel like I'll never truly feel at home in any part of the world for multiple reasons, somewhere where I can feel comfortable relating to people just because we're from the same area but that's not really true. I was an outsider in Japan and I felt like an outsider living here. Moving to a bigger city didn't provide me much comfort as I still feel like I'm not apart of the "in group". I know people who haven't even moved countries like me will probably feel this (esp if you follow me cause no regular person would follow me tbh) thats the frustration I try to capture with my writing that I hope more people to can attach to than just "this is Aotearoa bitch!!!!!!!!!". I feel love and also a lot of rage for this country. My stories are less of a love letter for it and just auto biographical, some parts are cozy and nice but a lot is pretty rough and stressful. There's still the kid in me screaming "I WANT TO GO HOME!" all the time while I live here, back then "home" would've just been back in Japan but now I don't really know what that "home" is. I find solice in my characters trying to figure that out too

#ask #my stories rarely feel like they capture authentic nz to me sometimes but idek what that is really #I was gonna go on a rant about how much I hated this country growing up because of how ppl treated me + everything being different #but that can be for another day

[dekusleftsock]

I've seen multiple posts lately talking about how bkdk shippers tend to have fairly accurate analysis/predictions of canon events, despite people saying bkdk shippers have unrealistic expectations. What do you think?

I mean, I may be a bit biased, but I honest to god believe that, yes, we have better takes.

The thing with any form of storytelling (and is an inevitable part of analysis) is that we will always project onto the characters. It’s just, what we do. Humans find patterns and because we have amazing pattern recognition we connect that pattern to our own patterns/experiences.

Projection is just a fact to accept of life when it comes to any form of telling a story. The new definition that’s gotten popular over the years, “kinning a character”, is an obvious symptom of that human experience. Our ability to put ourselves in the shoes of a character is both normal and expected. In fact, a lot of times it’s even wanted; that’s just what main characters are for. For shonen specifically, people usually want to envy the character in some way. Cis men like to feel powerful and that’s just, a fact of life for those who don’t seek the help they need.

This is in contrast to a shojo, where the point is so that women can relate and/or envy the magical girl genre. The idea that you are more powerful than you look which is VERY popular within women and afab communities. The security you have as your own guard dog in a weird way.

And I’ve noticed a pattern (I’m sure I’ve already said it on this account at some point lol) but most people who hate Katsuki.. are usually projecting their own bullies onto them. Or they could also be projecting a toxic relationship/friendship onto him, anything. “If I was in dekus shoes..” that’s the thing dude. You aren’t in his shoes.

Now, another factor, most people who ship bkdk are also writers! Or analyst’s! People who are able to read the subtext, and generally are more open minded people to forgiveness or anything else.

This isn’t an intelligence thing, in fact sometimes it’s not even a projection thing, but what I DO know is that out of all the groups of shippers in this fandom (and I’m a multi shipper, I’ve been in a lot of them) bkdk shippers are generally the nicest and are able to dissect the show overall. It’s very welcoming.

It has its bad parts. In fact I think most of the reason why this app specifically is so nice is because people fought and died to make this a nice space. (sorry tumblr love ya) You will end up reading piles on piles of fanfics that create a distorted view of bkdk (hell, even make it toxic asf) and think that the way it was written was okay and healthy.

There are tons of iffy people out there, and fandom manages to get out weirdest and grossest parts of people sometimes. Like tiktok! (Derogatory)

But just as bkdk has a lot of good people, really intelligent people a lot of the time too, so does izu//ocha, or kiri//Baku, or todo//deku. Nothing is really linear. No ship should ever get in the way of how we treat each other unless it’s outwardly hostile. Who cares if someone ships like, idk, todoroki and iida, but I ship todoroki and sero. (I like both of them but besides the point, it’s an example dammit)

Also, I honestly think the reason people think bkdk shippers have way too high expectations is because the story itself is a parody. That’s what this show is. It’s a parody of the normal shonen. It’s going to dip it’s toes into gay and non monogamous relationships (tsuochatoga???? Like ochako is way closer to tsu than Izuku but ANYWAY-) through our mc and his supposed “love interest”. Maybe I’m delusional, but I think it’s better to take a leap and be optimistic and get your hopes destroyed than to constantly live without the positivity of just, being hopeful. Being pessimistic is miserable, I’ve done it before and I’m not doing it again.

I think the idea of having “too high expectations” as a justification for why bkdk wouldn’t be canon, or how “it’s a shonen” isn’t necessarily based in any actual evidence, rather our own pattern recognition. And think about it; this was one of horikoshi’s FIRST MANGAKA’S. We know close to nothing about horikoshi’s writing other than what he’s done in mha.

So, what we think is just as valid as anyone else who thinks it’s unrealistic. I’m tired of being told I’m wrong by people who don’t even see most of the subtext or symbolism within bkdk or mha as a whole.

#mha deku #midoriya izuku #bkdk #bkdk brainrot #bakudeku #bakugou katsuki #bnha deku #mha analysis #deku midoriya #mha bakugou

[writing-plurals]

Amazing that I found your account! I've been wondering about this thing.

For the past four years I've been working on and off on this book

In the book everyone has some sort of thing that kind of hampers them in the human world, but helps them in their world- kind of like how in Percy Jackson, a lot of demigods have dyslexia and adhd

These hampering things are different for almost everyone and they're often related to a power or ability that you have. A person who has telekinesis may "hear voices" and person who can prophesize things may have an ungodly horrible sleep schedule

One character in particular just blacks out

The idea with her was basically that she has this "side" thar whenever it senses she's in danger, shows up and whoops ass.

This version of her is clearly not her doing the things and then immediately forgetting she'd done them. Her friends make comments about this version of her acting very different, when she isn't in control of her body, she makes comments as to what it feels like. She counts how long she's there for, then, as if nothings happened, she's whipped back into reality

Now with this character, in the beginning, I really didn't want her to be a system. I'm not sure how I convinced myself she wasn't, but now that I've began to understand my own system, understand what's happening, it's pretty obvious she's a system. The only problem is, no matter how much she really hates her mom, she isn't traumatized. Not by her mom or anything else, it's literally a point in the story that all of her childhood was her parents keeping her safe from bad things. There's not really any room for truama

Especially nothing serious enough and that would occur at a young enough age for her to develop did or osdd

Now don't get me wrong, I support systems formed outside of truama, but the last thing I want is for the first book that I've ever written that wasn't a picture book to be a catalyst of a bunch of discourse, I also feel there aren't many clear representatives of did or osdd in the media, and even less that are actually good or accurate

Personally, as someone who identifies with endo system (despite beginning to wonder if undiagnosed osdd is a possibility) I genuinely just think it's only fair that the disordered people are tended to first, then, once I feel they've been represented, I can then chose to represent the non disordered

So my question to you is what you think I should do?

Should I continue with this character not being a system and just this being the magic of that world that causes the weird split

Or should I go back into her backstory and find somewhere to fit the truama needed to make this character representative

(And I just realized this but she's the only character I have really that isn't that representative of anything else the rest of the main cast

Mixed (black and white) + Bisexual + Adhd

Mixed (Asian and white) + FtM + MLM/demisexual + depression

A literal robot + nonbinary + panromantic + has traits similar to autism but I wouldn't call it autistic cause it's a robot

Mixed (black and asian) + agender + schizophrenia

They're all mixed bc they're all mixed with the things I'm mixed with shhh 😔

But like this character

White + heterosexual + Cisgender + literally nothing else interesting about her other than that blackout-different-person thingy

So yeah, theres also that

Hmmm, think of representation like a kinda pie being made for a holiday meal. Just cuz you made a pumpkin pie (endogenic system rep), doesn't mean other ppl can't go out and get what they need for apple or banana cream pie. There's plenty of space for both kinds of stories to exist. The same way just cuz tv has few long running lesbian shows doesn't stop gay ones being made.

Endogenic systems' stories deserve to be told too, and it's okay to wanna tell it with what you have set up. It's not being insensitive to represent one marginalized group over another.

As for other headmates you mentioned, I'm a little too white to help with that, so maybe our followers and other mods can help with that bit!

-Mod Tick Tock

#Mod Tick Tock #plural representation #plural system #pluralgang

[malicedafirenze]

The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster Bujold - Recommendation and Discussion

I'm backing up all my book reviews from reddit. This was originally posted on /r/Fantasy on 2018/03/18

I already made a post about the first book in the series a few weeks, but I want to elaborate now that I've read the whole series.

I'll try to make this post work as a recommendation for people who haven't read it, so spoilers will be tagged.

The Basics:

The Sharing Knife is a story about a young farmer girl who meets an older lakewalker, a kind of soldier-sorcerer. They fall in love and eventually realize that magical and non-magical people need to work together against the malices (life-stealing magic entities) or both will be doomed.

The sub-genre would be best described as romance/adventure, I suppose, with a lot of the plot focusing on relatively "mundane" events, but with bits of action here and there.

Themes and Scope: I liked that Sharing Knife is pretty "slice of life", even though the later books lead on that some fairly world-changing events are happening, or at least being set into motion. The overall focus on the relationship between the cultures of lakewalkers and farmers makes for pretty interesting worldbuilding I think.

Not a Standalone: It's obviously a series, but I thought it more extreme for this one than for other series that the first book cannot and should not really stand on its own. As I explained in my other post, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the plot of the first book because basically all the action happens right at the start and I'm not a big fan of plots solely about weddings. The balance works a lot better if you look at the whole series as two big volumes (one/two and three/four) or even one big story.

Family Issues: Both protagonist have a number of issues with their families on a very relatable scale. Fawn's issues in the first book particularly resonated with me, where she is starting to become more confident once away from her family, but slips back into old insecure habits once she is back in those surroundings. I've been there both with some members of my family and with certain groups of friends, and found it incredibly relatable to read: this feeling that you don't particularly like yourself around a certain group of people or that you just lose all confidence if you're around people who have a tendency to pick on you, even if it's for minor things.

Ground Sense: I loved the workings and descriptions of Ground Sense (the lakewalkers' magic, their underlying sense of the 'spirit' of everything around them, but especially living things). Some of the concepts, like changing the Ground / essence of something in the 'spiritual world' seemed really familiar to me, but I'm not sure where to place it. I guess Shadesmar and Soulcasting from the Stormlight Archive have similarities, but I'm not sure if it doesn't also remind me of something else. What other books have a 'magic system' where everything has an 'essence' or 'spirit' and the physical of it can be changed by modifying that spirit, if you have the skill/magic powers to do so?

Romance: I always find myself pining for more romance in most of the fantasy that I read, and I quite liked it in Sharing Knife, after getting over the characters' age gap. Because the later books' "drama" is much more focused on the world around the characters rather than any conflict between them, the romance got much less prominent. Which is nice, I guess. I wouldn't have wanted there to be any artificial drama between them, but it's not really romance anymore if it's just a story about a couple? Idk, I like more turbulent relationships I guess, but it was also nice for a change to just have an established couple with no pointless issues between them.

'Women's Health': I liked that pregnancy and miscarriage are both fairly big themes/plot points at some point in the series, since that is something so often left out of fantasy/adventure books. Sharing Knife is pretty 'open' about such things and I thought that was a fresh change. very minor complaint

Gender Roles: Sharing Knife does a pretty amazing job of having female characters who fit into traditional gender roles and expectations (Fawn, for example) while still letting them be interesting and relatable characters. There's no 'not like the other girls' and no 'strong independent woman ^^tm syndrome, but there are women who patrol and fight etc. and both that and being a traditional housewife are presented without any sort of judgement for the other, which I think is really nice since a lot of fiction still tends to look down on traditional femininity.

Book 4 Action: All the books have their action sequences with a real sense of danger, but hot damn I didn't expect shit to get that real in book four. book 4 spoiler

Sequels: I thought the events set into motion towards the end of the series, meaning book 4 spoilers, would make for a super interesting sequel, perhaps set a few decades later.

I really enjoyed Sharing Knife in a... special kind of way. It was all really warming, somehow. There's conflict and danger sometimes, but all in all it's a really comfortable-feeling story, it's got a certain kind of coziness to it.

I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who likes romance and slice-of-life types of stories.

So yeah thank you /r/fantasy, as usual, for recommending good books to me and I hope to pass on the favor :D

Edit: forgot to mention: I listened to the whole series as audiobook read by Bernadette Dunne. Very good audiobook and pleasant narrator :)

#book review #the sharing knife #lois mcmaster bujold #fantasy books

[umbranocturnes]

_Introduction...

Greetings everyone, I am Umbra Nocturne also Umbra Nocturnes. (Umbra Nocturne is my writing alias, Umbra Nocturnes is for art related to my writing. It's only a letter off so no real difference lol) This will be my official Tumblr blog! I will be posting content relevant to my two book series tentatively titled "The Violinist" and "As Above so Below". I am a LGBTQIA+ writer / artist and Aro-Ace Non-Binary (They/them (you may also use he/him) )

I take commissions! You can find the information in my carrd link as well as other socials for my original work [Here]!

Also, I am neurodivergent so the way I interact with people might seem strange. I suffer from pretty debilitating mental illnesses, so I'm not perfect, I try to do better when I make mistakes so please be patient with me. I might be "jumpy" or extremely defensive as I work through this mentally and get more comfortable with Tumblr and its community. It's not an excuse and I do apologize if it happens but it is a warning.

IF you want more stuff from me I also have a fandom blog! I am in several fandoms and I also role-play! I will mention it at a later date!

You can find me and my original content here:

Instagram: @/_umbranocturnes_ [HERE] [main platform]

Discord: [Ask]

Twitter: @/umbra_nocturne [HERE] [not active I will delete that hell hole app eventually-]

Artfol: Umbra_Nocturnes [HERE] [semi-active]

Sections:

Censorship & Context

Book Series Summaries [Content summaries]

Final Warnings and Statements

_Disclaimer!...

My stories/art revolve heavily around historical themes related to military history! One of my series takes place during the Second World War and contains both axis and allied characters. I also work with content from: The Great War (WWI), The Victorian Era, Medieval Europe, and misc timelines! If content containing explorations of: WWII, mental illness, death, trauma, injuries/wounds, persecution/discrimination, war crimes, fictional axis characters (n-zis and others), real historical events and other affiliated content disturbs you it's best to move past my blog.

I in no way want to glorify or promote harmful ideologies / hate groups. I do not support hateful ideologies of the time periods my content takes place in! My stories are historical-fiction not everything is real! I might create fictional events, characters, and or organizations so don't expect 100% accuracy.

_Censorship...

This blog will be heavily censored.

Censorship will range from blacking out / blurring, written warnings, or omitting, it heavily depends on context. I am not a monolith, I am not an expert, so do your own research and fact check! I will give as much context as I can with the knowledge of history I have. I am nowhere near done with research, so my context might be inaccurate. (It's not my intent to be misleading it happens, feel free to correct me if you know more about something than I do but ALWAYS cite your sources please!)

I will be mindful to censor to the best of my ability: names of real war criminals, faces of real war criminals, criminal organizations (EG: Nazis), Hate symbols, Hate Speech/Slurs, graphic depictions of war/war crimes etc...

Context is very important in historical settings. I chose different methods of censoring based on the context of a work. Not everything on this blog will be censored, it all depends on context.

Writing (if I post any) will have a warning message something like: (WARNING: the following section contains uncensored depictions of (X thing)! Please skip ahead to the red - - - - - to avoid it!) Then you can scroll to a dashed red line and bypass the content.

I will have a TW tag for each post so you can blacklist specific tags! It will be (( #TW: [insert name] ))

If you run across something in my work that you feel should potentially be censored please reach out through DMs and tell me! Sometimes I miss things, I am not a monolith, people make mistakes, it's not intentional and I appreciate people letting me know so I can fix them.

_Book Summaries!...

Let's get into something fun shall we?

"The Violinist" -

Is a story set during WWII. Beginning in 1941, we follow a man named Setheroth Noctus who is brought back from the dead as a undead being and is again thrown into a life of war. Caught in the events of the Second World War, he joins up with his old lord Valerius as an allied spy working with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and other British intelligence organizations to spy on the Germans from within the ranks of high command itself. Setheroth struggles with leading a double life as a fraudulent high-ranking SS commander with men under his command, and being a saboteur serving the British crown and the Allies dismantling the nazi war machine. He faces constant internal struggle and along the way makes unexpected allies and discovers more about himself than he bargained for. This story also follows along with the misadventures of one Brahm Faulkner a British physician and long time friend of Valerius as he and his friends struggle to live their lives in war-torn Britain and across the Allied fronts. The events of the war change their lives irrevocably forever.

(This story contains LGBTQIA+ pairings, LGBTQIA+ main characters and supporting characters as well as drama, tragedy, romance, suspense, historical-fiction, an supernatural elements. It is a fictional war story. An no I would like to clarify- it's not just "bury your gays" / nazi victims. They are proper characters who have influence on the plot.)

"As Above so Below" -

A collection of short stories (document) containing lore of my world's dead beings. It builds upon concepts used in "The Violinist". Some short stories follow important characters throughout events in the dead realm's collective histories and provides insight into how they live. However this is not a true "story" it's more like lore. (Think DnD manuals or Tolkien's "Silmarillion" on a smaller less epic scale lol-) There are two realms, that of the living and that of the dead. The dead realms are inaccessible to humans but all manner of dead beings reside there in. The dead realms encircle our living one ever expanding and invisible to mortals. There are three realms that make up the "dead realms" Elysium in the upper-most divide with Tenebraeyl and Oblivion residing on the lower division. Elysium and Tenebraeyl are home to unique dead being races, and are ruled over by a council of lords and a "King" that rules over all. Tenebraeyl will come to know two kings, Luzifer and Death bound by marriage. Elysuim is resided over by Heliyos and Oblivion by none. A realm of ash and vast grey desert nothing resides where dead being's ashes return. Only one man has ever resided there, Belial the traitor of Tenebraeyl and a entity responsible for unfathomable destruction.

(This also contains many LGBTQIA+ characters and relationships. It is lore with dark "gothic" overtones, high-fantasy, drama, historical anachronisms, ""comedy"" etc... (A Song of Ice and Fire (GoT) but with way more supernatural beings and queers behaving both good and badly.))

_Final Warnings & Statements...

I do not tolerate bigotry!

Although some of my work is set in the darkest points of history and may contain characters who act/think in bigoted ways, I the admin DO NOT support bigots! If you believe in the ass backwards terrible shit the nazis and others perpetrate GET OUT! My blog is not a safe space for neo-nazi extremists, reichblr, wehrbos or anyone else who romanticizes fascism and seeks to suppress people's rights. I am part of the LGBTQIA+ community and I will NOT tolerate discrimination even from within its own fucking ranks. (Looking at you LGB movement- fuck you, you are just quiet cowardly forms of bigots.) Despite the nature of some content I deal with, I am a LGBTQIA+ friendly admin and endeavor to make my work as safe/avoidable as I can given its nature.

2. I do not support nor condone the use of AI generated work or NFTs for profit or otherwise!

I do not consent to my work being used for AI generated work of ANY SORT. Even recreational, I do not consent to it. Also goes for NFTs. Do what you want with your own work but not mine.

3. I am keeping current/modern politics off this blog.

I keep most of my political opinions to myself and away from my socials for the sake of my own sanity. Do not assume that the things I post are reflective of my views on current politics, that is very wrong. Modern politics are a huge trigger for me and this blog is my safe space away from it. So this account is a "modern politics free zone" 95% of the time! Anything post Cold War is most likely not on here.

4. Sometimes I might share funny history meme nonsense but let's keep jokes sensible.

We can have history jokes and memes but I DO NOT appreciate jokes from certain assholes. No, your holocaust jokes are not funny they are shitty and offensive. You don't have "dark humor" you're just a asshole. History jokes can be funny- yes I still laugh at the Caesar salad with knives joke and yes a good Sabaton meme will send me to my grave but some things are just not good to laugh at. Keep in mind the context of your jokes. Is the thing you are making fun of something that is serious that you probably shouldn't be laughing about with strangers online? If the answer is yes, just don't say it friends.

[Updated: 02/02/24]

#ww2 oc #historical oc #original art #original character #my oc #oc artist

[jovialturtleface]

The Not Bros! Starring Kittybro & 5Sec+! Kittybro plays the normal straight man as a counterpart to 5Sec+'s chaotic everything. Coming to television..... In another universe. ⚪️⚫️

#art #myart #artists on tumblr #original characters #doodle #firealpaca #oc tag #Kittybro #5Sec+ #5 Sill-o beat #The Circuit circus #Jove's Silly World #I'm testing out some tags idk #I feel like I should group the non-story related characters so people can find them more #I have no idea what to call it #Feels weird to call it Jove but Jove is pretty unique #Ahaha I should've put by jove at the end of the last one #It would've been funny #Anyway a TV Show about these guys... You would watch right? #You'd buy the merchandise right? #You would be supporting me? #Like the song 'supporting me' from Sonic Adventure 2 #I really like that song #It's very catchy #I wrote something long but I accidentally erased it wah #I'm really tired I'll try to rest.... I always try #If I'm still up well you know how it is #Anyway have a good one everybody! Play Fire Emblem Awakening! #Thanks for reading these tags #Actually I feel so bad for writing these

[pumpkinpaix]

mdzs fandom, diaspora, and cultural exchange

Hey everyone. This post contains a statement that’s been posted to my twitter, but was a collaborative effort between several diaspora fans over the last few weeks. Some of the specifics are part of a twitter-localized discourse, but the general sentiments and issues raised are applicable across the board, including here on tumblr.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ve probably seen a few of my posts about this fandom, cultural exchange, and diasporic identity. For example, here, here, and here. This statement more directly criticizes some of the general issues I and others have raised in the past, and also hopefully provides a little more insight into where those issues come from. I would be happy if people took the time to read and reblog this, as the thought that went into it is not trivial, and neither is the subject matter. Thank you.

Introduction

Hello. I'm a member of a Chinese diaspora discord server - I volunteered to try and compile a thread of some thoughts regarding our place and roles in the fandom expressed in some of our recent discussions. This was primarily drafted by me and reviewed/edited by others with the hopes that we can share a cohesive statement on our honest feelings instead of repeatedly sharing multiple, fragmented versions of similar threads in isolation.

This was compiled by one group of diaspora and cannot be taken to represent diaspora as a whole, but we hope that our input can be considered with compassion and understanding of such.

For context, we are referencing two connected instances: the conflict described in these two threads (here and here), and when @/jelenedra tweeted about giving Jewish practices to the Lans. Regarding the latter, we felt that it tread into the territory of cultural erasure, and that it came from a person who had already disrespected diaspora’s work and input.

Context

The Lans have their own religious and cultural practices, rooted both in the cultural history of China and the genre of xianxia. Superimposing a different religious practice onto the Lans amidst other researched, canonical or culturally accurate details felt as if something important of ours was being overwritten for another’s personal satisfaction. Because canon is so intrinsically tied to real cultural, historical, and religious practices, replacing those practices in a canon setting fic feels like erasure. While MDZS is a fantasy novel, the religious practices contained therein are not. This was uncomfortable for many of us, and we wanted to point it out and have it resolved amicably. We were hoping for a discussion or exchange as there are many parallels and points of relation between Chinese and Jewish cultures, but that did not turn out quite as expected.

What happened next felt like a long game of outrage telephone that resulted in a confusion of issues that deflected responsibility, distracted from the origin of the conflict, and swept our concern under the rug.

Specifically, we are concerned about how these two incidents are part of what we feel is a repeated, widespread pattern of the devaluing of Chinese fans’ work and concerns within this fandom. This recent round of discourse is just one of many instances where we have found ourselves in a position of feeling spoken over within a space that is nominally ours. Regardless of what the telephone game was actually about, the way it played out revealed something about how issues are prioritized.

Background

MDZS is one of the first and largest franchises of cmedia that has become popular and easily accessible outside of China. Moreover, it’s a piece of queer Chinese media that is easily accessible to those of us overseas. For many non-Chinese fans, this is the first piece of cmedia they have connected with, and it’s serving as their introduction to a culture previously opaque to them. What perhaps is less obvious is that for many Chinese diaspora fans, this is also the first piece of cmedia THEY have connected with, found community with, seen themselves in.

Many, many of us have a fraught relationship with our heritage, our language—we often suffer from a sense of alienation, both from our families and from our surrounding peers. For our families, our command of the language and culture is often considered superficial, clunky, childish. Often, connecting with our culture is framed as a mandatory academic duty, and such an approach often fosters resentment towards our own heritage. For our non-Chinese peers, our culture is seen as exotic and strange and other, something shiny and interesting to observe, while we, trapped in the middle, find ourselves uprooted and adrift.

MDZS holds an incredibly important place in many diaspora’s hearts. Speaking for myself, this is literally the first time in my life I have felt motivated and excited about my own native tongue. It's the first time I have felt genuine hope that I might one day be able to speak and read it without fear and self-doubt. It is also the first time that so many people have expressed interest in learning from me, in hearing my thoughts and opinions about my culture.

This past year and a half in fandom has been an incredible experience. I know that I am not alone in this. So many diaspora I have spoken to just in the last week have expressed similar sentiments about the place MDZS holds in their lives. It is a precious thing to us, both because we love the story itself, and because it represents a lifeline to a heritage that’s never felt fully ours to grasp.

It’s wonderful to feel like we are able to welcome our friends into our home and show them all these things that have been so formative to our identities, and to be received with such enthusiasm and interest. Introducing this to non-Chinese friends and fans has also been an opportunity to bridge gaps and be humanized in a way that has been especially important in a year where yellow peril fear mongering has been at an all-time high.  

History

However, MDZS’ rise in popularity among non-Chinese audiences has also come with certain difficulties. It is natural to want to take a story you love and make it your own: that’s what transformative fandom is all about. It is also natural that misunderstandings and unintentional missteps might happen when you aren’t familiar with the ins and outs of the culture and political history of the story in question. This is understandable and forgivable—perfection is impossible, even for ourselves.

We hope for consideration and respect when we give our knowledge freely and when we raise the issue of our own discomfort with certain statements or actions regarding our culture. Please remember that what is an isolated incident to you might be a pattern of growing microaggressions to us. In non-Asian spaces, Asian diaspora are often lumped together under one umbrella. In the west, a lot of Chinese diaspora attach themselves to Korean and Japanese media in order to feel some semblance of connection to a media which approximates our cultures because there are cultural similarities. This is the first time we've collectively found community around something that is actually ours, so the specificities matter.

There is a bitterness about being Asian diaspora and a misery in having to put up a united front about racial issues. Enmity towards one group becomes a danger to all of us, all while our own conflicted histories with one another continue to pass trauma down through the generations. Many of us don’t even watch anime in front of our grandparents because of that lingering cultural antipathy. When the distinctions between our cultures are muddled, it feels once again like that very fraught history is flattened and forgotten.

Without the lived experience of it, it’s hard to understand how pervasive the contradictory web of anti-Asian and, more specifically, anti-Chinese racial aggressions are and how insidious its effects are. The conflation of China the political entity (as perceived and presented by the US and Europe) with its people, culture, and diaspora results in an exhausting litany of criticism levied like a bludgeon, often by people who don’t understand the complicated nature of a situation against those of us who do.

There is often a frankly stunning lack of self-awareness re: cultural biases and blind spots when it comes to discussions of MDZS, particularly moral ones. There are countless righteous claims and hot takes on certain aspects of the story, its author, and the characters that are so clearly rooted in a Euroamerican political and moral framework that does not reflect Chinese cultural realities and experiences. Some of these takes have become so widespread they are essentially accepted as fanon.

This is a pattern of behavior within the fandom. It is not limited to any specific group, nor does it even exclude ourselves—we are, after all, not a monolith, and we should not be placed on pedestals to have our differing opinions weaponized against one another in fandom squabbles. We are not flawless in our own understandings and approaches, and we would appreciate it if others would remember this before using any of us as ultimate authorities to settle a personal score.

It is difficult not to be disheartened when enthusiastic interest crosses the line into entitled demand and when transformative work crosses into erasure, especially when the reactions to our raised concerns have so frequently been dismissive and hostile. The overwhelming cultural and emotional labor we bring to the table is often taken advantage of and then criticized in bad faith. We are bombarded with racist aggressions, micro and macro, and then met with ridicule and annoyance when we push back. Worse, we sometimes face accusations of hostility that force us to apologize, back down, and let the matter go.

When we bring up our issues, it usually seems to come with the expectation that there are other issues that should be addressed before we can address ours. It feels like it’s never really the time to talk about Asian issues.

On the internet and in fandom spaces, Western-coded media, politics and perspectives are assumed to be general knowledge and experience that everyone knows and has. It feels like a double standard that we are expected to know the ins and outs of western politics and to engage on these terms, but most non-Chinese have not even the slightest grasp of the sort of politics that are at play within our communities. We end up feeling used for our specialized knowledge and cultural background and then dismissed when our opinions and problems are inconvenient.

As the culture represented in MDZS is not a culture that most non-Chinese fans are familiar with, we’d like to remind you that you do not get to decide which parts of it are or are not important. While sharing this space with Chinese diaspora who have a close connection to the work and the painful history that goes along with being diaspora, we ask that you be mindful of listening to our concerns.

Cultural erasure is tied to a lot of intense historical and generational trauma for us that maybe isn't immediately evident: the horrors of the Pacific theatre, the far-reaching consequences of colonization, racial tensions both among ourselves and with non-Chinese etc. These are not minor or simple things, and when we talk about our issues within fandom, this is often what underlies them. This is one of the first and only places many of us have been able to find community to discuss our unique issues without feeling as if we’re speaking out of turn.

With the HK protests, COVID, the anti-Chinese platforms of the US election etc., anti-Chinese sentiment has been at the forefront of the global news cycle for some time now, and it is with complete sincerity that we emphasize once again how important MDZS fandom has been as a haven for humanizing and valuing Chinese people through cultural exchange.

Experiencing racial aggression within that space stings, not just because it’s a space we love, but because it feels like we’ve been swimming in rapidly rising racial aggression for over a year at this point.

Feelings

This is a difficult topic to broach at the best of times, and these are not the best of times. Many of us have a wariness of rocking the boat instilled in us from our upbringings, and it is not uncommon for us to feel like we should be grateful that people want to engage with something of ours at all. When we do decide to speak up, we’ve learned that there is a not insignificant chance that we’ll be turned on and trampled over because what we’ve said is inconvenient or uncomfortable. When it is already so difficult to speak up, we end up second-guessing and gaslighting ourselves into wondering whether there really was a problem at all.

We’d like to be able to share what we know about our culture and have our knowledge and experience be taken seriously and treated with courtesy. This is a beautiful, rich world built with the history of our ancestors, one that we too are trying to connect with. When we find it in ourselves to speak up about it, we would appreciate being met with consideration instead of hostility.

We don't have the luxury of stepping away from our culture when we get tired of it. We don't get to put it down and walk away when it’s difficult. But if you're not Chinese or Chinese diaspora, you get to put this book down—we'd like to kindly request that you put it down gently because of how much it matters to all of us in this fandom, regardless of heritage.

What we are asking for is reflection and thoughtfulness as we continue to engage with this work and with one another, especially with regards to how Chinese issues are positioned. When we raise issues of our own discomfort, please take a moment to reflect before reacting defensively or trying to shut us down for spoiling the fun—don’t deprioritize our concerns, especially in a fandom for a piece of Chinese media. We promise most of us are not trying to start shit for the sake of a fight. Most of the time, all we want is acknowledgement and a genuine attempt at understanding.

Our hope with this statement is to encourage more openness and understanding between diaspora and non-Chinese fans while we navigate this place that we’re sharing. Please remember that for many of us, MDZS is far more intense than a typical fandom experience. Remember that the knowledge we have and research we do is freely and happily given, and that it costs us both materially and emotionally. Please don’t take that for granted. Remember too that sometimes the reason for our discomfort may not be immediately evident to you: what seems culturally neutral and harmless might touch upon specific loaded issues for us. We ask for patience, and we ask for sincerity as we try to communicate with one another.

We are writing this because there’s a collective sense of imposed silence—that every time the newest round of discourse crops up, we often feel as if we’re walking away having created no meaningful change, and nursing new wounds that we’ll never get to address. But without speaking up about it, this is a cycle that will keep repeating.

This is not meant to shame or guilt the fandom into throwing themselves at our feet, either to thank us or beg for forgiveness—far from that. We’re just your friends and your fellow fans. We are happy to have you here, and we’re happy to create and share and play together. We just ask to be respected and heard.

Thank you. Thank you for listening. Several of us will be stepping back from twitter for a while. We’ll see you when we get back. ❤️

* A final addendum: here are two articles with solid practical advice on writing stories regarding a culture other than your own.

Cultural Appropriation for the Worried Writer: Some Practical Advice

Cultural Appropriation: Some More Practical Advice

The thread on twitter is linked in the source of this post. Thanks everyone.

#mdzs #mdzs meta #the untamed #the untamed meta #cql #asian diaspora #chinese diaspora #race #racism #mine #mymeta #once again my tag failing me because this is a collaborative work #but! for the sake of organization #statistically average #cultural appropriation #cultural erasure #what else do i tag this im so wired

[writingwithcolor]

Occassionally I come up with a story I really want to do where I just go "crap... I'mma need advice on this one..." and this one involves goblins. I wanted to write an episodic comic that picked on fantasy tropes a bit about an exasperated Goblin girl who just wants to do her "mundane minimum wage job of the week" but Goblins being the canon fodder level 1 mooks of the fantasy genre she keeps getting roped into "The fantasy bullshit quest of the week" usually due to some reward or prize that is too good to pass up to stay at her day job, usually just barely missing out on their reward before going on to the next episode with a new town, job, quest, and reward, while having left some positive impact in her wake that will eventually positively help her personally in the finale.

As much as it was completely unintentional, Goblins have their antisemitic roots and I have been considering changing her to something else that can translate as "Level 1 Fantasy Mook" for the story such as a rat girl or a kobold or something, the story is still a comedy about a member of a super marginalized group of non human humanoids being bribed with rewards/riches and still feels very unavoidably and problematically 'Jewish coded'.

I normally am not too worried about adding POC characters into stories I write because them being poc is not usually part of the plot and I am also prepared that I am going to mess up here and there and completely welcome people calling me out on unintentional microaggressions so I can improve in the future, but for stories like this one I think I might need some advice considering the roots in Jewish stereotyping seems to be this ideas grandpa and is intrinsic to the plot... or if this is something that just can't be done inoffensively and should just be shelved...

Non-human creature tempted by monetary reward

Can she be a little creature that isn’t ugly?

Sorry to put it so baldly, but for me a big part of why I find the goblin/dwarf etc. stuff disturbing and hurtful is that it often plays on imagery in which phenotypic features associated with us, like hooked noses, are exaggerated to the point of looking non-human. After all, what is the logical purpose of the prosthetic nose on the traditional Halloween witch costume?

So that would fix part of it -- if she’s a fairy instead of a goblin, since fairies are usually portrayed as attractive. Or if she’s something that has no connotations like a cat girl or an anthropomorphized rabbit in a dress.

I also think you might already be okay because while “being bribed with riches” is money/greed-adjacent, it sounds like she’s not actually being given access to any of those riches for most of the plot. Subsistence-level poverty and working for minimum wage would make anyone want more, no matter what their cultural background was, so I think reader sympathy will be with her and her genuine need rather than it coming across like she’s naturally motivated by money for its own sake.

But honestly I think this would be adorable with a hardworking little rabbit girl. And then you extra don’t have to worry about accidentally having coded her Jewish; rabbits are super not kosher anyway.

--Shira I love this story conceptually, but you are correct to point out possible issues. Goblins are often Jewish-coded, and even your possible replacements could easily pose their own challenges: propaganda images of us often featured rats, and there is an entire conspiracy theory about us being lizards that makes kobolds, lizard folk, dragonborns etc. a possible problem. Like Shira I feel like your character is in a financial position that will be very relatable to many readers, and won't seem like an extension of any sort of greedy stereotypes. 

For me, I feel that if your character doesn't have additional Jewish coding, and isn't falling into antisemitic tropes, it's fine to write a story about a goblin who is roped into adventures, and who makes money doing it that they can't make in their low-paying day-job. I'll be honest, I like goblins. I like kobolds, and gnolls, and orcs. I definitely want to be friends with an owlbear, and have tea with a hag, so I'm hesitant to advise people outside the community to avoid stories with goblins altogether. I encourage you to either change the character to something that is less likely to be Jewish-coded like Shira suggested, or keep your character a goblin, and put a bit of work into showing her do specifically not-Jewish things, while avoiding antisemitic tropes in her characterization and plot. 

Whatever you decide, I will be thinking about hanging out with her. 

--Dierdra

#asks #kichimiangra #jewish #Jewish stereotypes #Jewish coding #goblins #fantasy #Greedy Jew

[ruby-whistler]

Why c!Dream should (and probably will be) redeemed

Hi! I’m bad with intros. You’ve read the title, so, let’s start with the definitions.

In this essay, we are considering the popularized definition of “redemption” instead of the classical one, which is, as per the Oxford Dictionary, “the act of saving or state of being saved from the power of evil; the act of redeeming.” That’s not however the way the word is used in fandom and media.

/dsmp /rp

The definition of redemption I’ll be working with in this essay is not forgiveness by the people who c!Dream has hurt, nor is it removing himself entirely from his past actions, but moreso the decision to change for the better and abandon destructive mindsets for himself and others.

A “redemption” in a narrative sense would be circumstances and a character arc that would allow that kind of healing and betterment.

I’d like to start this off by the fact that being “irredeemable”, in this sense, also doesn’t exist; redemption is a thing of conditions and choice, not of being allowed by someone else. You can’t gatekeep healing from people who seek it, just to be clear, and that even goes for people who have done terrible things.

Since I understand there is a lot of concern for c!Dream’s past actions, here is a post from people who are much more fit than me to speak on the matter, about the way in which they see a possible c!Dream redemption arc.

Another disclaimer, I am not going to be considering c!Dream only from the perspective of c!Tommy in this essay. c!Dream appears in other people’s perspectives and he himself has his own, unseen perspective. As a character, he is an individual person in his own right rather than just the antagonist of c!Tommy’s story, and so I do not have much concern for their narratives intertwining too much should this writing choice occur.

I’d also like to note that redemption is, in this sense, always a positive thing for everyone involved - someone who’s been prone to doing bad things in the past deciding not to do them anymore and try to change, or just simply heal enough to consider it, isn’t going to have a long-term negative effect in any of the characters, but rather the other way around. Healing is an unlimited resource, and the victims do not have to heal first for the person who hurt them to consider being better.

Here’s a well-written thread on Twitter that elaborates a bit to finish off this point, and let’s move on to actually talking about redemption in the context of the Dream SMP, and c!Dream specifically.

Why a c!Dream redemption arc is not only a good writing choice, but in this case the only good writing choice;

c!Dream, as we all know, has been subject to mental and physical abuse to the point of straight up torture by both c!Sam and c!Quackity (to different extents). He has been in indescribable amounts of suffering for the past 74 days at the time this essay will be published. That is six and something times the duration of the entire exile arc in canon.

Whatever the interpretation of his words in prison is, what is undeniable is first of all the fact his mental stability is absolutely crushed at this point, second that no human being could possibly ever deserve to undergo this, and third, his stay in the prison is showing off his humanity and making him out to be sympathetic.

Now, consider this; how would it feel if c!Tommy died at the end of the exile arc? Empty, there would be no catharsis to such an end, especially because of all of the hurt he’d gone through. Objectively, a bad writing choice.

Let’s compare, narratively of course, this situation to the prison arc. Even though I would never say one of them is “better” or “worse” than the other, since both are terrible and undeserved, c!Dream’s current state checks off all of the boxes that would make his death unsatisfying in the storyline; even if people want him gone, there would still be the dissatisfaction at the current build-up and why they even did it in the first place (it really wasn’t necessary to anyone else’s story to make him out as a victim, and yet they did) if they were planning to kill him off anyways. And since the prison arc is naturally meant to induce sympathy, even from an angst perspective it would simply not make sense within the themes and writing of the plot.

So, c!Dream can’t die, and he also can’t stay in the prison forever - the build-up must lead to something, which is logically a breakout. Great… what now?

Well, the Dream SMP prides itself in accurate representation of trauma and mental instability, specifically cc!Tommy and cc!Dream who have pulled it off incredibly during the exile arc.

Now, undoubtedly, after the prison, c!Dream is going to be just terribly traumatized- considering the writers’ past creative decisions, would it make sense for him to play the role of a dangerous, heartless villain in other people’s stories, while completely ignoring the logical fallout of what he’s been through?

In my mind, no. The most possible result is that cc!Dream is going to rightfully portray someone who’s been hurt so much he is broken, scared and tortured into submissions over months of agony and slowly stripping away of his agency, his dignity, his humanity. And that is… not going to be pretty, nor is he going to be in any way the same as before.

After everything, I’d be surprised if he can properly look at shears without shaking. That’s not villain behaviour, that’s the behaviour of someone who needs help.

Which leads me to another point, which is relatability. Believe me or not, there are people out there who heavily relate to c!Dream because they have been through things that allow them to see themselves in the character - abandonment, mental illness, etc. - or who have had destructive mindsets they have struggled to let go of in the past.

To them, as well as to the viewer, redeeming c!Dream could actually be a very good example, showcasing that anyone who has done bad things or has been hurt in the past can learn that it is possible to be better, to move on, to not be stuck in a loop but to actively seek help and then use that support to find the path to healing.

Making c!Dream a better person, who in a way, wins over his past, over his trauma, over the hurt he’s caused, and manages to actually get better… is inspiring, in a sense. It shows that you can abandon unhealthy mindsets, you can find a support group of people who care about you, you can make your life better simply by deciding to be better and then sticking to that, no matter how difficult the process.

This is why I believe that redeeming c!Dream would not be bad writing, but quite the opposite, and that the prison arc is an obvious set-up. Alright, but how does that work with the character? How could someone so widely hated mentally improve in such a seemingly violent and terrible environment? Would it even make sense within the context of c!Dream’s character so far? Well,

Why c!Dream has the capacity for healing and the Dream SMP the ability to provide it;

First of all, let’s remind ourselves that through c!Dream’s entire spiral he wasn’t ever directly given a chance to change. He was regarded as someone to defeat in order to accomplish a happy ending, or as someone who needed to be removed in order to achieve power on the SMP. Ever since the 16th, which is when the corruption of the character is the most obvious, there have been no attempts to reach out or to help him. I do not blame the characters for this - I am simply pointing out that since it has never happened before, we do not know how he would respond, and that, after everything he’s been through, any bit of kindness or compassion towards him will be a new concept he will have to learn to deal with somehow.

This point is especially driven home by the fact that both c!Quackity and c!Sam would often tell him he is a monster who deserves nothing but to suffer, and that what he’s going through is never going to amount to all the hurt he’s caused - basically removing any possibility for ever getting better (because by this logic, he doesn’t deserve support, and he doesn’t deserve to get better) from his line of sight.

He also hasn’t had a support system since shortly after the 16th, when his friends left him over c!George’s dethronement and made no effort to mend their relationship afterwards. c!Dream isn’t used to having allies and people on his side, but to being hated; again, wouldn’t that mean positive reinforcement could very well be all he needs to make the choice?

His bad mindsets - attachments are weakness, ends always justify the means, people will consider you a bad person no matter what you do - have been continuously proven right by his environment, even in prison. Any kind of subversion, plus an explanation as to why they are wrong, could be of great help to c!Dream.

Just another disclaimer; I do not believe c!Dream would change thanks to the treatment in prison, but rather despite it. His mental stability is non-existent at that point, and in order to get better he needs genuine emotional support from the people around him as well as to heal before he can redeem himself.

Alright, but… c!Dream has hurt a lot of people. Who would be fit to help him?

Let’s start off with the worst option and why it’s impossible the writers would even attempt this; c!Tommy.

c!Tommy has no responsibility to help or ever forgive c!Dream - not to say he could. The two, as it is, would drag each other down instead of helping in any capacity, and only make matters worse. The two of them shouldn’t even interact in the best case scenario - the best thing for both of them would be if they got enough healing and support individually that they could live around each other and not get their trauma or toxic habits triggered when interacting for whatever purpose of the plot.

So, if not c!Tommy (and c!Tubbo neither by extension), who could redeem c!Dream?

Well, he can’t do it on his own for sure. Being in nature with animals is nice, but further isolation from other people would merely help with the prison trauma, not with the state of his tendencies when interacting with others. He, once again, needs positive reinforcement from other people for him to heal properly.

There are two main options for this in my mind, and then there’s a few individuals he could also find comfort in, including people from both groups or those unaligned.

1) Kinoko Kingdom

From the people of this new country, c!Dream has never negatively interacted with c!Karl before, he has never hurt c!George and he hasn’t directly harmed c!Sapnap. Although the relationship with his old friend group could be difficult to rekindle, none of them have grudges against him that are too personal, and they have been canonically close friends since the beginning of the SMP, so it would be very much possible to rebuild burnt bridges. They’d be familiar, and with the addition of c!Karl they could be a good source of comfort for c!Dream after he either breaks out or is released from prison - just gotta convince c!Sapnap not to kill him first.

2) The Syndicate

From the Syndicate, c!Dream has never directly interacted with c!Nikki, and from what I know of her character she never seemed to be very affected by his actions - even doing his work for him when he was planning to burn down the L’Mantree. c!Techno is an ally who doesn’t have anything against him, and as for c!Ranboo, here is why I believe c!Dream being in the Syndicate could be positively influential on his character arc as well;

c!Ranboo and c!Philza have had a conversation about change, during which c!Ranboo made it clear he thinks everyone can change except for c!Dream; who, in his mind, is “too deep down the rabbit hole”. c!Philza replied that he thinks anyone can change if given enough time.

… you see what I’m getting at?

c!Dream has been implied to be an ally to c!Ranboo’s enderwalk state (or the state when he has access to his full memory), and hence would most likely not behave negatively towards him at all. While it might make it more difficult for c!Ranboo to deal with his own issues, it might also give him more motivation to get to the bottom of it as well, especially since he now has access to the person who, presumably, started this all. While this is going on, c!Dream would show himself in a much different light than c!Ranboo sees himin, which could lead to confusion, realization of the flaws in his own logic, and hence, positive character development.

Here’s a great post about why c!Techno as a character could be a great asset in c!Dream’s healing process & redemption, and why there is not much need to worry about him not knowing or finding out about c!Dream’s actions.

Of Kinoko Kingdom and the Syndicate, as far as I know, neither c!Tommy nor c!Tubbo have ever been directly involved with these groups, nor are they planning to.

Another important point to make is that, while c!Tommy needs to be kept away from c!Dream in order to heal properly, the same goes for c!Quackity and c!Sam in c!Dream’s case. While c!Quackity has high chances to interact with either Kinoko Kingdom or the Syndicate in the future, there’s an even higher chance, in that situation, that c!Dream would be offered protection, which is also important; there is no healing from trauma without the knowledge of safety, to some degree.

So, this was an essay as to why I think c!Dream’s recovery and redemption (one needs to come before the other, naturally) is not only extremely possible but also could be pulled off well and have a positive impact on both the characters, and the audience.

#dreblr #dream smp #c!dream #c!dream sympathetic #c!quackity neg #c!sam neg #dsmp analysis #tw torture #tw abuse #long post #i really should start writing longer essays #i need more material #anyways #hope y'all liked this #just joining the debate #:]

[potato-with-hair]

Fake News

First tumblr Story Ever

As the newest Avenger it seemed that Tony Stark and Captain Rogers were more than comfortable sending you out on all of the shit missions, granted, you could use the time in with your new teammates to learn their little quirks and start working to meld your abilities with theirs so that you could start working together seamlessly, but it was getting ridiculous. You were half expecting to start getting told to go out and help the NYFD rescue kittens from trees and helping the NYPD direct traffic on Broadway in Manhattan during rush hour. Y/N was a technopath, which was a fancy name for someone who could control technology and anything mechanical with their mind, or if you wanted to be technical about it, according to the official S.H.I.E.L.D. dossier:

Y/L/N, Y/N: Main Ability: Technology Manipulation

User can manipulate technology, the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and

processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment

of objectives. However, most users only can exert control over technological

constructs, such as computers, robots, hardware, and other devices that can be

termed as "technology", in any way. Manifested as a special form of electrical/telekinetic manipulation, a special form of "morphing" which allows physical interaction with machines, or even a psychic ability that allows mental interface with computer data.

Also Called:

· Cyberkinesis

· Cyberpathy

· Mechanokinesis

· Technokinesis

· Technopathy

Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, spring was coming to a close and summer was just around the corner. Tony asked me and Sam Wilson, you may know him as Falcon, to head to midtown

Manhattan because there were some “unsavory” characters hanging around Grand Central Station.

Turns out it was some low-level HYDRA minions that were basically trying to see what kind of trouble they could cause, they had planted a pipe bomb in a waste bin in the middle of the station and it was a Friday when thousands of people would be traveling through the station heading to and from work and school. I think that HYDRA was more or less just testing us Avengers out to what abilities we had and see if there are any hidden capabilities we possessed before they come at us for a full-scale attack.

Sam and I arrived and were able to find the pipe bomb relatively quickly, part of my ability is being able to read the signatures of different technologies and mechanics, and if you don’t think that a bomb countdown timer throws out a red flag, you are mistaken. Anyway, we found it, and rather than call bomb and arson with New York’s Finest, I was able to manipulate the mechanics myself using my mind. I shut down the detonator without ever touching the bomb and made the whole thing inactive within a few minutes time.

Easy peasy, 10 minutes, another fast sweep which took an additional 30 minutes, and Sam and I were finished and ready for our close-ups from the media that always, inevitably followed. We had a small group of media that always showed up whenever a call went out that an Avenger was “working” and there was almost always a small fan base at Grand Central or where ever we were working who would come up to thank us, like we were some sort of rock stars, and as per usual some of the younger men and women took the opportunity to do some flirting with us. Tony told us, unattached Avengers, that any publicity and light flirting and playfulness with the fans was good publicity and would help for the public to relate to us and see us in a positive light. I am not going to lie, I may or may not have had a little thing for our resident speedy Sokovian, but our little flirting in the compound never seemed to go beyond that, flirting. I thought there was a possibility he liked me also, but, so far, nothing. Although I did catch him staring at me quite often and Wanda and some of the guys were always talking to him and then immediately looking in her direction like they were just discussing her. Pietro did seem to always try to be around me and sit near me as often as possible as well. Also when the “fans” would flirt with him, I noticed he never really showed much interest in them, always watching to see what I was doing.

Oh well, time to spend a little time with the crowd before Sam and I headed back to the compound. The New York Times was talking to some travelers about the pipe bomb that was found in the wastebasket and what their thoughts were and how they felt about us being there to “save the day, yet again” when an overzealous “fan” started to get a little handsy with me in the background. He had followed me around and asked me to dinner a few times, flashing cash and his business card a few times, trying to press it into my hand multiple times. I explained I was really bust and thanked him but said I was not interested or available, but he kept perusing me. He was leaning over my shoulder with his hand around my waist from behind, body pulled directly flush with my back and he was in an excited state if you know what I mean, and he was whispering in my ear about some of his fantasies and things that he has dreamt of doing to me. Of course, the camera flashed right as he started to kiss my neck and I had a smile on my face because I was focusing on a sweet 10 year old in front of me asking for my autograph and telling me I was her favorite avenger. If the camera had waited all of 5 seconds more, they would have caught me performing a minor assault on the prick and another 5 seconds would have caught Sam pulling me off of him and flying us out of the station and back to the compound with his hand over my mouth because I let lose a string of explicative’s that would put Wade Wilson to shame.

The next morning I woke up and took a shower, went down to the kitchen and made my normal toast and juice and bowl of fruit, and could not help notice that the Avengers that were there were looking at me strangely, I thought it was because I was still in a sour mood because of that jerk from yesterday and the icky feeling he gave me that I was assaulted by scum. I knew that Rogers, Wanda, Sam, and Nat were on their way to Lagos on a mission. Thor and Banner were MIA since Sokovia, which left Stark, Rhodey, Vision, Pietro and I still here.

“Y/N, so, how was the pipe bomb incident yesterday?” Tony asked seemingly hinting at something

“Uneventful aside from a slight annoyance in the crowd, is there coffee left?” Y/N responded looking at him while rising to get a mug and pour a hot mug to clear the remaining sleep from my head.

“Nothing happened? Nobody special you want to tell us about?” Rhodey chimes in.

“Not that I am aware of or worth mentioning now that it’s done and over with, is there something you would like to tell me about?” Y/N asks looking back and forth to them. “Hey, where’s Speedy, he’s usually down here eating everything that isn’t trying to eat him first.”

Tony looks at Y/N and smirks, “It is strange that you should mention that, he came in about 20 minutes ago, I assume you were in the shower or I am sure you would have heard him, saw the cover of the New York Times, flipped out and, well, here you are, please take a look, we are on pins and needles to know what you think. And I hope you know that all suitors must meet the full team before you becoming an “item” and pass Avenger inspection, and Rogers is particularly tough.” He slid the paper across the kitchen island to where you sat, both he and Rhodey watching your face for a reaction. You unfolded the paper confused and looked at the front cover.

There in black and white at you was a close up of the stranger with his arms around your waist from behind, you leaning slightly forward smiling and the stranger kissing your neck, the little girl you were smiling at was covered by the person being interviewed in the foreground. To someone who was not there and did not know the story, this definitely looked bad, like a very intimate moment caught on film, the headline read ‘Newest Avenger Moving Fast With New York Wall Street Trader’ the article went on to talk about how you just met the guy and did not bother to get his name, but just let him put the moves on you, yadda, yadda, yadda. Apparently, after Sam got you out of there, the “gentleman: in question decided to make a name for himself and gave a short interview making it sound like you approached him and started the whole flirt fest, lead him on, and then abandoned him, with the promise to return. You looked at Tony and Rhodey with wide eyes and a sick feeling in your stomach, “This is the biggest load of shit I have ever read in my life, this is not anything at all what happened. About 3 seconds after this picture was snapped, I basically slapped the taste out of his mouth and would have continued to do so had Sam not gotten me out of there. Flirting? More like this guy assaulted me. This was not consensual or wanted. I told him multiple times I was not interested and refused his advances and invitations to dinner and he kept bothering me. I was talking to a little kid and he pulled this crap when I had my back turned to him.”

Tony went from joking to serious almost instantly, “Okay, we were just going to bust your balls on this a little bit, but this has just become a non-joke. I’ll have Pepper contact someone in Stark Industries legal department to get in touch with the paper to track this guy down, he’ll have had to sign a waiver for publication and we’re going to go after him for liable and harassment. If he tries to come after you for battery for the assault, well, we’ll call that defense, Avenger or not, no one gets to touch you without permission. Y/n we really didn’t know, we were just going to play around with you about this a little, and we had no idea. He didn’t do any weird stuff, right?”

“NO, I mean, I slapped him and Sam pulled me off of him and flew me out of there, anything beyond what he did to me and you would have been getting a call from New York’s finest about bail or my court hearing for homicide. I was shocked, but if it had gone beyond what it was, I would have raged a lot harder than I did. The headline in the paper would have read a lot differently today.” Y/N responded.

“Alright, I know that yesterday was weird and I know that Nat and Wanda have had to deal with crap like this from time to time, unfortunately being an attractive woman on the team seems to let the guys out there think that it is open season to treat you ladies like meat. It is unfair and it sucks and if any of the men on the team are around just say the word and well step in and make sure the guys know it’s not okay, or step back and let you take care of it yourself, whatever you feel more comfortable with. In the meantime, take the weekend off and go to a spa or go shopping or to the movies or whatever you need to do to feel better, charge everything to Stark okay. Just let us know if you need anything alright.” Tony hugged you with one arm and kissed the top of your head. “One thing though, Lightning Legs. He flipped out when he saw this. He thought it was true and got hot and bothered. I would suggest finding him and letting him know what is really going on because the last thing you need right now is a crazy Sokovian kid acting like a jealous boyfriend right now.”

You look us at Tony and across the island to Rhodey, “What is that all about, what is he flipping out about, he brags about all the women he is into and dated back in Sokovia all the time, what does he care about what happens to me?”

“Y/N are you serious? That kid has been crazy in love with you since Sokovia. I swear I was coming close to sending you both on a mission that involved a tropical island and a case of rum soon. If he’s not staring at you, you are staring at him. It’s sickening.” Tony finished with a sarcastic eye roll. Go relax in your room, we'll take care of this. Just try to put it from your mind and well talk soon. With that, you left and headed to the elevator bank to the sleeping quarters level, feeling shitty, but better because you knew Tony would do what he could to help.

You were only in your Bedroom Suite for about half an hour when there was a somewhat frantic knocking at your door. You got up from your bed, put down the book you were currently reading, and made your way to the door, opening it, you found a seemingly tormented Pietro, he entered your quarters without an invitation and started to pace the length of your room, looking at you, Y/N could tell he needed to speak, but he was not sure where or how to start.

“Y/N, I ……. The newspaper, I saw the picture and…… Who is he? Do you like him? I mean does he make you happy? I want you to be happy……… I know that no one will ever be able to………. Not like I do………” Pietro kept starting and stopping sentences, never actually completing any, and getting agitated. You had never seen him this disconcerted before, he was always so unruffled when he would flirt with you before and this was a whole new side to him that you had never seen before. It was like he was unsure of himself and it was not something he was sure of how to process. You walked towards where Pietro was walking seemingly carrying on an argument with himself and reached out for his hands.

“Pietro, please stop, okay, please. It is not what you think, I don’t know that guy. It was fake, it was false, I don’t know him, I did not ask for that, I did not tell him it was okay to touch me or kiss me like that, I was not alright with that, He did that without my permission, and the photographer took a picture and they wrote some fake story to make it seem like I was into it. I did not want that. I don’t know him, I feel disgusted by that.” You start to rub your neck where the creep kissed you, sat down on the plush cushioned ottoman bench at the foot of your bed and start to curl into yourself to make yourself as small as possible as Pietro looks at you taking in your words.

“Wait, moja bohyňa (my goddess,) some guy you do not know came up to you and started to touch you and kiss you without your permission? No, I will not allow this, who is this man; I will go fight him right now. Žiadny odpadok sa nemôže dotknúť mojej bohyne bez jej súhlasu. Nikomu by nemalo byť dovolené pozerať sa na ňu bez toho, aby sa poďakoval bohom, že bola stvorená. (No trash can touch my goddess without her consent. No man should ever be allowed to look on her, without thanking the gods that she was created.) Are you okay?” He sat on the bench next to you giving you plenty of space, not wanting to crowd you. “I will kill this man, why would he think he could touch you, Bohyňa (Goddess,) if I had been there, I would have stopped him immediately, I am so sorry I was not there with you. “ Pietro sat staring forward with a look of disappointment in himself. You leaned over towards him putting your head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around you pulling you into him. You snuggled your face into his chest drawing designs on his stomach and chest with your finger as he kissed your head and held you close.

“Tony is going to get the Legal department of Stark Industries to look into the paper and find out who the guy is and get him charged with harassment, and I may or may not have given him a good slap as soon as I got over my shock and realized what was happening, so I figure I should let the cops know everything in case he decided to try to press charges later for battery saying I attacked him. But I promise Pietro, there is absolutely nothing at all going on with that guy or any other guy in my life because I was sort of waiting for someone I had a sort of thing for to maybe make a move, but I didn’t think that he was interested, so I had basically given up hope and just accepted that we would only be friends, and that was okay, but I really was hoping he would let me know he felt the same.” You continued tracing symbols on Pietro's chest with her fingers nervously

Pietro put his hand gently under Y/Ns chin and raised her face so that his clear blue eyes were looking directly into Y/N/E/C, “Do I know this guy?” He asked finally deciding to go with the advice the rest of the team when they told him that Y/N was definitely into him, and Wanda assured him that yes, Y/N thought about him often and was only too nervous to make the first move, but if Pietro would, she would be receptive.

Y/N looks from Pietro's eyes to his lips and back to his eyes again and states “I am sure you have seen him around here, sometimes he’s hard to spot because he’s pretty fast, but when he stops or slows down and doesn’t try so hard to impress everyone he’s really an amazing guy. I have to say to, he is sexy as hell too, and he has this accent when he talks, uggghhh, it does things to me.” Y/N just smiles at him teasingly.

Pietro chuckles and smiling leans in but says softly before he kisses you, “Prednesiem vám básne a texty, ak ma chcete počuť hovoriť, poviem vám všetky veci, ktoré chcem s vami a s vami urobiť, ale nikdy vám nebudem môcť vyjadriť, ako veľmi vás milujem a uctievam. Teraz si môj, ako ja tvoj, navždy. (I will recite you poetry and lyrics if you want to hear me speak, I will tell you all the things I want to do to you and with you, but I will never be able to express to you, how much I love and worship you. You are mine now as I am your, forever.)” He then lays the softest and most soul-baring kiss on Y/N that she has ever felt. It was as if all the passions in the world could have been transferred to her through that kiss and as he softly caresses her face while peppering gentle kisses on her face, Y/N thinks that maybe this stupid picture is not the worst thing in the world to ever happen to her if it is what FINALLY brought her and Pietro together, she figures if nothing else, this will be a brilliant story to tell their kids someday.

Slovakian substituted for Sokovian

Y/N = Your Name

Y/L/N = Your Last Name

Y/N/E/C = Your Eye Color

#pietro marvel #pietro x reader #pietro x you #pietro x y/n #pietro maximoff #pietro fluff #Pietro jealous #slight dubcon #fluff

[paint-music-with-me]

Here’s my non-sensical, unimportant ramblings about ALL of the GMMTV trailers (pretty lengthy . . . that’s what she said😏): 

(also minus Not Me bc it wasn’t part of the line-up but obvi im fucking pumped for it)

(p.s. the ones that are italicized are the BL ones in case you just want to know those instead :) )

“The Three GentleBros” - I’m a sucker for a family comedy drama. I like that there’s a single mom with good intentions but bad executions. The premise of the mom’s expectations (society’s expectations) of what a woman “should” be like for her son in relation to his personality vs what the women who they actually fall for are like? I think there’s potential. I’m more interested in the oldest bro’s love story than the others, mainly because cooking chaos is always adorable. LOVE that ending where the brothers ask themselves why they all look different but they’re brothers?? Amazing. Lots of room to work with, story-wise and character-wise. 

“U.M.G.” - #1 on Nanon’s list bc apparently this man doesn’t know when to take a break? This is definitely one of the more bizarre storylines and that’s why I love it? It’s basically about a man who is searching for his long lost childhood sweetheart who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Things change when he goes out, looking for aliens with a friend and finds her, all grown up and acting . . . different. It’s so weird and feels very “Stranger Things”/”Super 8″ in terms of aliens and a group of friends trying to figure shit out about them, but there’s love on the line? I feel like there’s room to talk about grief and love and I really hope they do. I love that they are branching out and doing more outside of romance/dramas. 

“Star and Sky: (...)” - Joong’s first project with GMMTV! YAY! First, I love that it’s a split story with different, yet familiar stories. Easily digestible and dare I say, fundable. “Star in My Mind” is about a guy who leaves for Germany but before he does, he confesses to his crush with no response. Then he comes back years later and meets his crush again but this time this crush is going to pursue him. It’s a simple story, nothing too wild - just cute. “Sky in Your Heart” is about a group of friends who get stranded in rural Thailand and come across a village who give them shelter. One of the guys, a med student, is attracted to the volunteer teacher named Prince. Very “1000 Stars” vibes but with a med student so I’m intrigued. 

“Home School” - Gun is gon be a busy guy just like Nanon, love that for them. This series follows a group of kids that end up isolated in a “prestigious school” that their parents did EVERYTHING they can to get them in. It’s got horror elements, mystery vibes, cult-ish vibes, and the rumored student that “disappeared” on campus. It lowkey reminds me of “Tower Prep” without the powers and there’s elevated horror elements. I’m into it, but I think I need another trailer to really sell it. There’s something missing to get me very pumped about the story if that makes sense. 

“Cupid’s Last Wish” - Oh boy...so apparently this show is being done by the same people who did FUTS? And it’s a body/gender swap? MMMM...🤔 but EarthMix?? I liked the starting point - EarthMix play close friends who live in the rural area and have a farm and they have arguments about what to name their “boys” (farm animals). If that’s not fucking cute, I don’t know what is. But then it turns into a more serious route where the friends become enemies but one of them ends up in an accident and he swaps bodies with his sister... so now the two men have to find someone to reverse the...spell? Curse? I don’t know what to call it tbh. There’s no doubt that this premise is very iffy but I trust EarthMix. I’m just tired of body/gender swap because there’s almost no nuance to it besides the obvious. (thought ngl it feels very fanfic-y? like off of “1000 Stars”?)

 “Oops! Mr. Superstar Hit On Me” - well then . . . this honestly is a classic drama? It follows a young intern as she tries to get an autograph from her mom’s favorite celebrity who is like 20+ years older than her but they both end up sleeping together? I don’t know . . . what to tell you? No one stood out to me, the whole age gap discussion they tried to do didn’t hit because *gasp* an older man with respectability and in the spotlight dating a young woman? As if it doesn’t happen all the time and no one blinks an eye, not really, or if they do, it’s about the young woman, never the man? HMMMM . . .🤔 The only thing I liked about the trailer was that the mom who wanted the autograph sided with her daughter when things got rough against her favorite celebrity. So that’s going for them. 

“My Dear Donovan” - cute-ish premise? Honestly, I cared about the kindergarten teacher. I don’t care about the model - his backstory is interesting but not his personality. Basically the teacher becomes the model’s assistant and she’s shy while he’s confident? BUT WAIT - there’s more (but it’s not that interesting to me?)??? Yeah, don’t know what else to tell you. 

“The Warp Effect” - let me fucking tell you, that video thumbnail is MISLEADING! I thought it was going to deal with time travel or actions/consequences concept. Nope, it’s about sex and love. It’s about a guy who is a virgin and he tries navigating sex and love but something happens where he wakes up in an alternate universe where things are flipped and he has a gf and has tons of sex??? Dude it’s like “American Pie” trying to be “Sex Education” with a sprinkle of mystery to keep things . . . interesting. . . (I say this with a look of distaste). And the fact that there’s a lesbian character in here . . . (THE ONLY ONE NOTED IN ALL OF THESE TRAILERS - I’M NOT EVEN HALFWAY THROUGH THE LIST!) and in order to see her, I have to deal with . . .whatever is going on in this show. Ugh. 

“The Eclipse” - holy shit, now this is what I’m talking about! Khaotung (Longtae in “1000 Stars”) and First (Kim from “The Shipper”)??? As a pairing?? I NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED! From the trailer, I think the story is following a prefect who finds the new kid at his school suspicious when a dummy dressed as a student was set on fire and all these weird things are happening at school? I don’t really know because the premise isn’t very strong with conflict and story - I think they relied heavily on the pairing and mysterious school setting to be the foundation of the show when presenting it. The main conflict I see is “perfect prefect no likey mysterious new kid - instant enemies” while the new kid is like some activist in the shadows(?) bc the school is “bad”(?). It’s not a terrible premise - just not enough with the concept of eclipses or further clarity of story. I can stretch and say maybe the prefect is eclipsed by this new kid and things change when their interests and feelings intermingled? But regardless, I hope this gets funded and the story is extensively worked on because I know there’s potential here.  

“Good Old Days” - this is going to make me cry, I know it. This follows an antique shop that holds the stories of past lives in the items that were sold into the store. Nothing supernatural about it (I don’t think). So there are 6 different stories about 6 different items. There’s loss, heartbreak, love, and second chances. Lots of familiar faces which I was so happy to see. I’m definitely going to keep my eye out for it. 

“Never Let Me Go” - BITCH! DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME! THIS BETTER GET MADE REAL QUICK! The main actors are the guys from FUTS and they are finally getting the second chance they RIGHTFULLY deserve! This show is so different from FUTS and I fucking love it. Basically it’s about a young man who is distraught about his father’s passing and dealing with secrets revealed about his father. One day his mother brings another young man from the rural area to be her son’s servant/bodyguard/butler? Things get more intense from there: murder mystery, assassination, family secrets, secret love, love triangle, agonized characters, also CHIMON. Holy shit, sign me THE FUCK UP! Everything about this story/concept is so fucking good - it’s like if “3 Will Be Free” had a child, this show would be it. 

“10 Years Ticket” - oh look, more familiar faces! :D So this one is also very interesting. It follows two families who were close but then things change when one child from one family kills one of the kids from the other family. Again, murder mystery, lies, betrayal, love triangle/square thingy, agonized characters, also OHM & OFF. This looks really intense and is going to be high-strung with all these characters not knowing who or what to trust and wanting the truth, oh my gods, I’m excited. I just love that GMMTV knows that their audience wants murder mysteries and more gay. Though this show is not gay, unfortunately. 

“You Fight and I Love” - unfortunately, this isn’t gay either :( I’m not hyped about this . . . unless they work on its writing. Basically it follows a boxer and his affections towards his best friend’s younger sister (who is still in high school . . . Idk how old the guy is but . . .mmmm) and he got a bit of a jealousy streak to him, great. Look, I love Joss and Love but fuck, this story is not compelling enough. The one thing that gives it possible potential is when Love’s character said something like “Don’t fight for me, fight for yourself” which honestly? She spitting facts. I need more characterization: What does this boxer want? What will fulfill his inner turmoil (besides wanting to bang his bff’s lil sis ugh)? It felt like a deflated “Rocky”/”Creed” and I only bring up those solid movies because those are good and they have boxing. So definitely not excited for this. 

“Midnight Series: Midnight Motel” - 1st in the Midnight Series which I can confidently say may become my fav series in 2022 because holy shit. Check it, this story follows a janitor/motel employee(?) and a call girl as they try to find a fast way to make millions of dollars with a crudely made app designed for call girls to pick up more clients? (no solid clue if that’s the app’s actual purpose) Ultimately the way this show is filmed, I don’t really care how weird the story sounds from my mouth, because it looks so fucking good! The contrast of lights, the dynamics of characters, the concept! Also OFF wearing a baseball cap! It looks good! NGL I thought he was going to be a hacker but it’s all good, I’m excited nonetheless. 

“Midnight Series: Moonlight Chicken” - 2nd story in Midnight Series. DO NOT BE PHASED BY THIS TITLE! It is one of its charms. This story follows a cook owner of a Chinese fusion restaurant that meets a young man down on his luck and love and they decide to start an affair (because that young man is actually in another relationship? *gasp* cheating :/ ) There is so much going for this story and I fucking love it. It gives me severe “I Told Sunset About You” vibes but adult and I’m happy that it’s actually going more mature/adult routes and themes. I wonder how they will handle the cheating, the bankruptcy of the restaurant, the side plots, and omg did I mention that FIRST is in it? AH! I’m so excited :D

“Midnight Series: Dirty Laundry” - 3rd story in Midnight Series. HOLY SHIT! #2 on Nanon’s list! I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS ONE. Basically it follows this girl who cares for a laundry mat and she’s in love with this one guy (Nanon, obvi) but her “love” goes too far when she breaks into his house and steals his money and then promptly loses it. Now him and her have to work together to figure out which person who frequents the laundry mat could’ve stolen the money or else he gets his ass handed to him by his very scary (but also hot) girlfriend-not-girlfriend? I probably summarized it horribly but trust me, it looks fucking good. I cannot get over the fact that it has a great balance of comedy and drama and the setting is genius AND P’JENNIE IS IN IT! :D

“Vice Versa” - HOLY SHIT I AM SO FUCKING EXCITED FOR THSI ONE - REMEMBER HOW I SAID IM TIRED OF BODY SWAPS? WELL IG IM A HYPOCRITE CUZ THIS IS THAT. But hear me out, this story follows a young man who swaps bodies with another man (played by Ohm - cameo) in an alternate world? And in order to get back home, he has to find a “portkey”, a person from his world to link him up to return together. Now guess who the fuck is this guy’s portkey? Another young man in the body of someone (played by Nanon - cameo - #3)! What is even more interesting is that in order to not draw attention, these men have to maintain their bodies’ lives and soon the question of “taking over a life that doesn’t belong to you” comes into play while also falling in love! The FLAVOR! THE SPICE! OH MY GODS FUCKING AMAZING, DO NOT FUCKING TOUCH ME! Definitely a lot more engaging with the body swap than “CLW”, okay? So end of discussion. 

“P.S. I Hate You” - okay, this is high-end elite drama and I am living for it! It’s got back-stabbing friends, a sex scandal, deceit, murder mystery and a main female cast. When I watched this trailer, my jaw was dropped the entire time, so much was happening! Basically a young woman is getting married when a sex tape gets leaked on her wedding day and being so distraught she dies by su*cide and now it’s up to her friends to figure out if someone backstabbed her or if there’s another person who wanted to ruin her life while also dealing with their own problems. Every woman in this show is so interesting and it reminded me so much of old Pinoy telesyres like damnnn! Also can we talk about those bridemaids’ dresses? 😍

“My School President” - this gives me nostalgia vibes. This follows a young man who became president of the music club but has to face the school president wanting to shut it down. In order to save the club, he has to be a page boy to the school president but then things change when feelings come into play, ooohhh. Honestly, I hope they focus on the school memories or friendships or the nostalgia vibes and let the love story unfold organically because they got a good concept here. Nothing too wild or intense, just a couple of kids who want to make their senior year the best it can be and if they fall in love along the way then fuck it! It’s easy-going compared to the other turbulent dramas on the list so that’s good. 

“Devil Sister” - this one is iffy for me. I got excited in the beginning because oh! Win! But then the story kept unfolding and I was getting less and less into it. From my understanding, it follows Win’s character as a veterinarian who thinks women are complicated but he still falls for the girl next door but things get messy when the girl’s sister wants revenge on her? I don’t think I summarized it well, but that’s the vibe it gave me? Like I said, not very exciting for me. Maybe I would’ve liked it better if it was in her perspective than the boy’s. Also the whole love square thing is eh, not flavorful. 

“You Are My Favorite” - dude, did anyone expect Krist to do another BL? And with someone who is NOT Singto???? Because I sure as hell did NOT! But fuck, this concept is pretty good ngl. Basically we follow a young man who is wreaked with heartbreak after hearing that this girl he’s been in love with for YEARS is getting married to his love rival. One day he finds a device that travels back in time and he uses it to stop her from falling for the love rival. But when he gets back to his own time, the results of his meddling revealed that HE ended up with the LOVE RIVAL instead. I really, really like this concept. It’s fresh, unique, and has lots of potential for growth. It has Ave! My girl! And Mike! My dude! It reminds me a lot of “About Time” which I absolutely ADORE so I can only hope they do the story right. 

“Astrophile” - kdrama vibes - that’s it. No, but really. That’s the vibe. It follows a young man who’s been in love with this girl since high school. When he sees her again, he does what he can to get her to fall in love with him. But there’s obstacles in his way; one of which is a close friend of hers who is ALSO in love with her. Does this not sound like a kdrama? They really going for a love triangle and second lead syndrome. I am so READY for it! And the painful part is: OFF is going to be 2nd lead!! ;0; I’m only going to be watching it for him, that’s it. I love romantic angst of unrequited love, I don’t know why, but I do. Also the highlight of the trailer was when the girl was talking to her friend and was like “do you think anyone would be interested in me?” UHM DAVIKA? HAVE YOU SEEN YOURSELF? OH MY GODS! 

“My Precious” - #4 on Nanon’s list! This one is very cute and charming and awwww <3 We follow a group of rowdy boys who all like the same girl (but they are actually chill about it??) But the rowdiest of them all (Nanon) gets into trouble that his crush has to basically babysit him at school so he doesn’t get into trouble. This begins the start of a bumpy, youthful journey to first love. Ohm and Chimon is in here and just the three of them being in a drama together gets me very antsy to see what they’ll bring to the table. I won’t lie, it’ll be interesting to see Nanon play a rowdy character because the characters I’ve seen him as are relatively tame so . . . 👀 I think it’ll be a short-ish drama because there’s only so much they can stretch this concept unless they want to add possibly “unnecessary” drama like toxic jealousy, sinking lies, betrayals, scandals, heartbreak, friendship break-ups - which honestly lessen how soft this show can really be. Like I’m not saying they can’t add this stuff, but I don’t know if they will moderate how much they add, you know? 

So here is my exhaustive thoughts about these shows for GMMTV 2022′s line-up. I am terrified and apparently the trailer for F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers is coming out tomorrow so, fuck me, I’ll have to add that thought to this list or make my own separate post. Guess we’ll see. ...oh shit... tomorrow is Bad Buddy day... fuck....

#blabber time #this was messy #plz talk to me about your thoughts with the trailers and if i made mistakes sorry #these are just initial reactions #gmmtv #bad buddy the series #not me the series #trailers #thoughts #brightwin #baker boys #thai drama #thailand #nanon korapat #ohm pawat #singto prachaya #bright vachirawit #win metawin #chimon wachirawit #mix sahaphap #earth pirapat #1000 stars #khaotung thanawat #first kanaphan #aye sarunchana #offgun #off jumpol #gun attaphan #mike chinnarat #3wbf

[lucky-sevens]

mechanisms basics & lore

welcome to my updated mechanisms intro post! this post will cover both the topics discussed in my mechanisms basics post, which is geared towards people who don’t know what the mechanisms are, and my deep lore post, which aimed to be a comprehensive compilation of all the important character and world lore. this post should serve the above group, but it’s geared towards people who have listened but feel there’s a lot of lore that seems to be common knowledge they’re missing. we’ll start out with a basic introduction, and then go into crew lore and a semi-comprehensive guide on where to go for further information.

basics

the mechanisms were a steampunk concept band, known for their queer representation and their tragic stories. they are no longer together, their last performance being january 2020, but several of their members are still creating related spinoff content.

they follow the trope many steampunk bands do, which is albums that tell a story; think similar to listening to a musical soundtrack, but geared to a visual-less experience. what distinguishes them is 1) narration tracks between each song, making the plot very easy to follow, and 2) being meant to be watched live, meaning there’s layers of meta that are more easily understood by watching recorded gigs rather than studio recordings of albums. specifically, there’s a focus on the narrators, known as the mechanisms or the crew of the aurora, who are immortal space pirates telling the stories and occasionally inserting themselves into them. though they are tragic figures themselves, their banter serves the purpose of bringing a lightheartedness and dark humor to the stories. if there’s an aspect of the lore you’re confused on, it’s probably related to the narrators!

to watch the mechanisms live, you can find recordings on youtube, dropbox, google drive, soundcloud, or vimeo, which are all compiled in this post (including transcripts!). if visuals aren’t your thing, i’ve linked the studio recordings later on in this post when they come up, and here are the mechanisms’ official spotify, bandcamp, and youtube, as well as an unofficial comprehensive lyric videos channel. 

the albums

regarding the albums specifically, there are 4 main ones (once upon a time (in space), ulysses dies at dawn, high noon over camelot, and the bifrost incident), 2 that are compilations of miscellaneous songs (tales to be told 1 & 2), 1 single (frankenstein), and 1 album that’s a high-quality recording of their last live show, including an alternative performance of the bifrost incident, 2 songs only performed at live shows, and 'the deathsong’, which details how they all eventually die (death to the mechanisms).

as you might have been able to tell from the titles, they’re all based off of various myths, folklore, literature, and/or fairy tales, using different genres on top of a sci-fi setting to add a fresh twist to them! for example, high noon over camelot is a western based on arthurian mythos, set on a space station. (the albums are known for all ending in tragedy, so be careful if that isn’t your cup of tea!) if your goal is to get into the mechanisms, i’d suggest sitting down and listening to them all in full; links will be provided below, or alternatively you can watch once upon a time (in space) live here, ulysses dies at dawn live here, or the bifrost incident live here. (there is no full live recording with visuals of high noon over camelot, sadly, but there are partial and audio only recordings.)

once upon a time (in space) - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

ulysses dies at dawn - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

high noon over camelot - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

the bifrost incident - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

tales to be told, volume 1 -  spotify/bandcamp/youtube

tales to be told, volume 2 - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

frankenstein - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

death to the mechanisms - edited video with the stream corruption fixed + subtitles / stream / spotify / bandcamp / youtube / transcript pt. 1 / transcript pt. 2

reading the fiction is integral to understanding both the albums and the mechanisms themselves. the fiction is a collection of short stories set in the mechanisms universe posted on their website here and compiled by me here, with an extra high noon over camelot story here. (there are also audio versions for ‘mirror mirror’ and ‘a rebel yell’ included on both the website and the compilation).

the crew of the aurora

as for the crew, at their peak there were nine members played by people, as well as the ex-member dr carmilla, who has extensive solo lore and is still active (which we’ll touch on in a few paragraphs). there is also their ship, the aurora, who is sentient and has her own lore. in fact, every member of the crew has their own backstory, set in a different genre or historical period; for example, nastya rasputina's is historical, jonny d’ville’s is a western and marius von raum’s is a mecha anime. however, they’re all still different flavors of steampunk! below, i’ll list each member, their performer, and the main sources of lore about them. for the majority of them, they have their own song in tales to be told, but there are a few outliers. everyone also has their own bio up on the website, which can all be found here. 

the aurora (n/a, ship)- on aurora (meta)

jonny d’ville (jonny sims)- one eyed jacks (song), jonny before he was mechanized (meta)

nastya rasputina (anonymous)- cyberian demons (song)

ivy alexandria (morgan wilkinson)- archive footage (fiction), crew bio

ashes o’reilly (frank voss)- lucky sevens (song)

drumbot brian (ben below)- lost in the cosmos (song), crew bio

the toy soldier (jessica law)- the story of the toy soldier (fiction)

gunpowder tim (tim ledsam)- gunpowder tim vs the moon kaiser (song/minialbum)

marius von raum (kofi young)- the death of byron von raum summary (blog post)

raphaella la cognizi (r l hughes)- crew bio

if you’ve noticed the crew bio doesn’t say much about raphaella, that’s because we know little to nothing about her backstory. the only thing we have to go on is a quote from the tv tropes page, which looking at the edit history, was likely written by one of the mechanisms. the quote is ‘Science officer who may or may not have cheated her way onto the ship after becoming a little too interested.‘ and the page is here.

the majority of fandom content is about the crew, working off of what we get from the tales to be told songs, the live gigs, and the fiction.

dr carmilla

speaking of characters with obscure lore, let’s talk about dr carmilla! rather than linger, i’ll just link my carmilla basics post, which is a comprehensive summary of who she is in and out of universe. to summarize, she’s a character based on the novella ‘carmilla’ by sheridan le fanu, commonly regarded as the first vampire novel, but her lore has diverged heavily from that original starting point since then. she is the oldest out of all of the crew, and made the majority of the other crew members immortal. she, as well as aurora, is from a planet called terra, which was destroyed partially as a result of her actions. her character is defined by her immortality and how she deals with it, her experiences on terra, her relationship with the mechanisms, and her dysfunctional relationship with her ex-girlfriend loreli, the last of which is the most covered by her songs. out of universe, she is played by maki yamazaki. all her lore lines up with what happened out of universe, and ties to the fact the mechanisms were originally dr carmilla and the mechanisms. she has two solo albums and two singles, which i’ll link below.

ageha (prototype edition) (album)- bandcamp | youtube

exhumed and {un}plugged (album)- bandcamp | youtube

the city {nex:type mix} (single, in-character cover)- bandcamp | youtube

eleven (single)- bandcamp | youtube

the majority of her lore is still to be officially revealed, and will be in the trilogy of albums maki yamazaki is working on.

further reading

if you’d like to delve further into the lore, there are a few sources i use! there are official, in-character, blogs, as well as things that are harder to dredge up; i won’t link them here, but some sources include @/thedreadvampy (the band’s artist, as well as morgan wilkinson’s sister and kofi young’s partner; don’t bother her for lore or anything, but she’s previously made posts sharing previously unknown information), old websites and deleted content found on the wayback machine, the tv tropes pages, and most notably the lore doc.

the ‘maki forbidden lore doc’ is an archive of all the lore maki yamazaki has shared on the mechscord, the official mechanisms discord which she’s on, and her own personal server, where she’s running an arg (alternate reality game) as a way of relaying more lore about the dr carmilla universe. for an idea of the scale, the doc is currently 91 pages and 28346 words, and recontextualizes much of what is known about dr carmilla and maki’s canon of the mechanisms universe. it is confidential to anyone not in her discord or the mechscord, as she’s said that this lore isn’t thought out nearly as much as the albums and is subject to change, so she’d rather it not be out in the open. however, information on how to join the mechscord can be found here. there is also a non-canonical fan project based on the arg in progress, but information on it is also confidential for now.

with regards to the above phrase ‘maki’s canon’ it’s worth noting that all of the individual band members have their own idea of what counts as canon and what doesn’t, and as you foray deeper into lore that division becomes more and more apparent.

with that, here are the mechanisms’ blogs. they are all both run in-character by the main nine band members and inactive unless i note otherwise.

twitter

tumblr

facebook

website/wordpress (run ic by tereshkova’s ghost, the blogbot, for the most part)

carmilla twitter (active, run ic by dr carmilla)

conclusion

now that we’re coming to the end of this, i’d like to thank whoever got this far, and to say a few words. my interest in the mechanisms has been slowly fading, and i’ve been writing less and less meta and lapsing in keeping up with new lore myself. honestly, i’m pretty worn out by how much i’ve done on this blog and in this fandom, and the commitments i’ve assigned myself. i do have plans for future meta, but it’s unlikely they’ll come to fruition. so, i thought i’d do a new version of my two oldest posts on this blog, and hopefully enable other people to look into the lore and theorize themselves with the new information.

to find more information, remember there’s a mechanisms wiki, and that my askbox is always open.

thanks for reading!

#the mechanisms #the mechs #meta #my posts

[reginaofdoctorwho]

if anyone wants to recommend musicals to me I would fucking adore that. Until then, here are some suggestions:

Love in Hate Nation-- LET’S GO LESBIANS! 1960s sapphic love story taking place in a girls’ reformatory. Also, trans girl played by trans actress!!! Some of the amazing songs are “I Hope” and “Oh Well”. Susannah Son wants to be a singer, her performative activist boyfriend is gross and also wants her to marry him so he’ll have better options politically. Sheila Nail is so fucking cool and I love everyone in this. My brain cuts out about this I’m so sorry babes. There is not a cast recording but there IS an original cast bootleg on youtube.

Holy Musical B@man!-- If you liked the goofiness of 1960s Batman and Robin, but think “man, these guys should’ve been able to swear! And also should have had a candy themed villain!” this is the musical for you. Also if you’ve heard of the very queer Harry Potter musical that JK herself tried to sue over, it’s made by the same group <3. As usual with Team Starkid, whole thing is up for free on youtube by the creators.

Firebringer-- Speaking of the same group... Cave people sapphics who I think are bi or pan. I love them and they’re all so dumb. Also, if you’ve seen the “I don’t really wanna do the work today” vine, that comes from this. I do not remember any of the second half other than one of them taking the ring the other is proposing with... to propose. And the “*blows kiss*” “fuck no, Zazz” “duly noted”. Kind of like a shitpost musical. Once again, free by creators. Actually, check out any of their musicals.

The Prom-- In Indiana, Emma just wants to take her girlfriend to the prom, and in response, the PTA cancels it. With some help from some broadway actors looking for good publicity, they manage to pull it off. So, to summarize, teen lesbian gets gay uncle who knows what she’s going through!! This musical makes me cry every goddamn time. There is a movie now, and I’m very happy about that because *high profile gay rep on netflix*, but I personally did not like the direction they took with it. They put a weird amount of emphasis on biological rather than found family in the movie, and were a little too forgiving when it came to trauma from family for being gay. Also, they took away Emma being butch. This was sadly (loosely) based on a recent true story from I think 2012. Also, was the first gay kiss in the Macy’s parade. You know those movie musicals the straight girls in theater like? The music is similar, but gayer, and for some reason that makes me so fuckng happy. I think it’s because non-queer people have had musicals for so long, and those normally have a 60s vibe, and the music in this does too and it feels more classic?? Sapphic promposal song (het at the beginning). “Unruly Heart” and the end of Act 1 will break you. Please ignore the bad wigs.

Spies Are Forever-- GAY SPIES GAY SPIES GAY SPIES!! Curt Mega (played by... Curt Mega) lost his partner Owen during a mission. Now, he’s just trying to get back into spying like Owen would want. I fucking weep every time. Also, a song about comphet (at 6:36)!! And here is a video essay on how it relates to the Lavender Scare. I want you all to know that everyone also headcanons the femme fatale spy in it as either a lesbian or aroace, which uh, makes sense. Also high quality videos put up by creators. They had Jewish people making fun of Nazis while writing this, but “Not so Bad” is... kinda bad. “Torture Tango” has so much goddamn sexual tension and becomes devastating.

Hadestown--  If you know the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, it’s like that, except capitalism part 1. Orpheus is a poor musician, Eurydice dies, just like the myth. Except, the Great Depression post-apocalyptic setting that works better than it probably should. There are actually 3 soundtracks: the concept album, off-Broadway, and Broadway. I personally don’t like the concept album purely based on vibe. Off-Broadway has an absolutely gorgeous sounding Orpheus, and if you’ve heard of the disaster that was Spiderman: Turn Out the Dark, then you’ve heard of surprisingly amazing Broadway Orpheus Reeve Carney. The Fates are gorgeous and I’ve decided they’re queer. Tony’s performance link here. Explores relationships, with Hades and Persephone’s aging relationship mirrored by Orpheus and Eurydice’s relatively new one. Anyway, unionize.

Jasper in Deadland-- If you know the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, it’s like that, except capitalism part 2. Jasper is a teen who’s best friend Agnes is pretty much the one good thing left in his life. His mom left, he got kicked off the swim team (he’s manic pixie dream boy in this, especially for swimming), and Agnes dies at the beginning trying to show Jasper that she’s brave and he should be too. So, he bravely ventures into Deadland to find her, meeting Gretchen the tour guide along the way. He also finds out that since he’s still living, he can bring memories back to the dead. Songs like “Stroke by Stroke” (he’s uh, definitely a teen, guys) and “Living Dead” (I shared a prinxiety animatic of that on here a while ago).They blend Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Christian, and whatever Dante’s Inferno counts as together to create Deadland. Story’s kinda hard to follow from the soundtrack, so if u wanna learn how it all ties together message me.

Death Note Musical-- Okay babes, here’s where it gets tough. It was written originally in English, and there is a spectacular English concept album, but the only productions have been in South Korea, Japan, and I think Taiwan. Listen to it anyways, find a bootleg of it with english subtitles. It has so much gay tension and also a truly ethereal character who seems to be a lesbian who is also either demisexual or demiromantic. If any of y’all saw the anime like me, it kind of cuts out the arc after episode 26. I personally thought it was actually a better story for it.

Alice by Heart-- Okay, this one makes me fucking cry every goddamn time. In WW2, these poor goddamn kids are all alone in the Tube System (is that what y’all call it? genuinely asking here) with none of their parents but still some grownups. Alice’s best friend Alfred is dying of tuberculosis, and to try to have one last thing together they start reading Alice in Wonderland, only for Nurse Hart to rip it apart to try to separate healthy Alice from dying-from-TB Alfred. It doesn’t work, and Alice proclaims she “knows it all by heart”, She tries to linger in the story with Alfred to have more time with him, he keeps trying to move it along because he’s dying and wants to finish it one last time. Themes are growing up and grief I guess.

Last I checked, there is a bootleg for all of these on youtube. Have fun!

#love in hate nation #holy musical b@man #firebringer #the prom #spies are forever #hadestown #jasper in deadland #death note musical #alice by heart #i know more gay ones too if u want that

[mckkachins]

gif cut-out tutorial

ok ok so @subtledean requested a tutorial on how to do stuff like this post with the gif cutouts and the text effects. hopefully this helps aria ;w; i’m not the best at explaining things but i included some screencaps for clarity. i’ve tried to compress all the sample gifs and screenshots down to under 3mb to avoid tunglr compression on mobile so if they look a little different from the actual gifset, that’s probably why!

what you’ll need:

photoshop, i’m using PS 2021 but any version of photoshop will work out

a basic knowledge of gif-making (i’m assuming you already know how to make a gif and color it).

step 0: storyboard

this isn’t strictly necessary but i HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend it. you don’t have to do any photoshopping this first step, but it’s really important to check out your footage and the shots you have gathered to see what works, especially if you’re trying to combine three or more gifs onto the same canvas. like literally take a piece of paper and draw out where you want the character’s faces to be, where you want the cutouts to be in relation to their faces, and think about whether or not there’s enough empty space to the right or left of characters heads for a cutout to be placed. is there too much movement that would be distracting or messy in an already busy gif?

things like that really help, and it also makes you double check on your footage quality and feasibility. if you end up making a gif where you want one character’s face to be on the left side of the gif but it turns out there’s not enough empty space on the right side of their face to place a cutout and you then have to hunt for new footage or start all over, it’s kind of a trainwreck and you just waste another hour of your time as you deepen your procrastination hellhole. that’s not a real story—

step 1: make the base gif

i’m assuming you know how to color it already. and aria i KNOW you know how to color already so :) size it accordingly to your desired dimensions.

as you can see, i left enough space on the right side of abaddon for the knight cutout to be placed.

save this as a .psd file. you don’t actually have to sharpen and do everything that comes at the end of making a gif right away, but make sure your layers are clearly labeled. do NOT convert to video timeline/smart object just yet.

step 2: make the cutout gif

this is critical: make absolutely certain your cutout gif has the same number of frames as your base gif. otherwise it could get really messy! abaddon has 20 frames, so the cutout will also have 20 frames. again, do not convert the cutout gif to a video timeline/smart object. just keep it as a frame animation. here’s my cutout gif. it’s just a simple b&w gif but i added a touch of purple for color consistency sake whatnot.

now for this particular gif i’ve actually cropped abaddon to be roughly exactly where i would want her face to be in relation to the first gif, but that is unnecessary. helpful, but unnecessary. you do NOT need the cutout gif to be cropped exactly perfect in order to make this work.

step 3: combining the two gifs

there are many different ways to combine two gifs onto the same canvas. some people like to do it via video timeline. i prefer to do it by frames and convert everything to a video timeline only at the end (it’s just a personal preference). here’s a tutorial if you prefer working with timelines, but i’m gonna go over how to do it by frames.

first group everything in your base gif into one folder. then group everything in your cutout gif into one folder as well. you can name them however you want to keep track of things.

then, select all of the frames in your cutout gif. in this case, all 20 of b&w abaddon get selected. make sure its not just frames 4-20 or whatever, but all the frames you made. you can click frame one and then shift-click your last frame to double check.

click the timeline tab group options bar and then go to options > copy frames

now go to your base gif canvas. select ALL the frames of your base gif as well (it’s critical that all of them are selected).

now do options > paste frames.

a popup should appear and you’re going to select the “paste over selection” option. do not link layers.

your cutout gif should now be completely or partially obscuring your base gif. however, now you should see two groups on your sidebar of layers. one for the base, one group for the cutout. if you labelled them with names you can tell which one is which.

step 4: creating the cutout

in order to create the cutout, we use my favorite thing in the whole world of photoshop. layer masks.

to make a layer mask, you simply select a layer or group you want to mask and then click this little icon on the row of icons at the bottom of your layers panel.

white on a layer mask means whatever group or layer is getting masked is completely visible. black on a layer mask means that the group or layer is invisible. if there is 50% gray on a layer mask, then its 50% visible. so on and so forth.

i love these so much i abuse them on the daily. i’ve made a few gifs where i’ve masked every frame one by one because i wanted to get some cool effects. admitting that kind of embarrasses me but oh well.

anyway this is simple though. just find a picture or an outline of a knight. i used these boyes:

obviously i cropped out the knight of the bunch, got rid of the watermark, and then i placed it on the canvas where i wanted it to go.

select the interior of the knight with the magic wand tool. should be pretty simple since it’s all black.

now click over to your layer mask. make sure you have selected the mask and not the group. you can tell you have selected the mask when a little white rectangle pops up on it.

when you know you have the mask selected, click command+i or control+i to invert. if for some reason you do not have this keyboard shortcut, just take a brush tool and color over the area in complete black. as long as the magic wand tool is still selecting just the interior of the knight, it should be fine.

now once again, black means a layer will NOT be showing, white means a layer will be showing. so right now after i disable the visibility of the top layer we used as a reference for the silhouette, it looks like:

do not fear the clownery. layer masks are great because they are always non-destructive. meaning that even if you somehow mess up and your canvas is showing something completely gross, you can always go back and edit your layer mask and your original gif would be unharmed as long as you did not touch any layers in the group, only the mask. simply invert the mask (again, make sure your mask is selected and then command+i or image > adjustments > invert) to get:

for a layer mask that looks like:

you could have also just made a black layer mask to begin with and then inverted the knight outline to be white. many different ways to do the same thing.

another tip: if you select your outline and then click layer mask upon a group or layer with no mask at the current moment, it will automatically make a layer mask with your selection as white and the unselected pixels as black. this is normally how i do my cutouts, because it’s a time-saver even if it like. saves a few seconds max. but i typed out the above for explanation and clarity, so hopefully i didn’t just make anyone more confused.

anyway.

now say you don’t like where the cutout abaddon is positioned. layer masks can also be linked or unlinked, depending on the little link icon you see between the group and the layer mask in the image above. if the icon is visible, the layer mask and the group are linked. if you cannot see the link icon, they are unlinked.

linked layer masks will move in conjunction with the group if any type of transform is done upon them. if the group moves, the layer mask also moves. but if a layer mask is unlinked, you can move the mask and the group independently of one another. for instance, i can change where the cutout is located on the overall canvas of the gif by simply moving ONLY the layer mask (and thereby changing where the blacks and whites of the layer mask occlude the cutout gif contents). but i can also transform the cutout gif layers without changing where the overall outline is located relative to the canvas itself. basically, i can transform the interior contents of the cutout independently. so here (make sure all of your frames are selected):

group unlinked. i’m also making sure that now i am selecting the GROUP (ie. the frames of the layers you are actually going to move) and not the layer mask. you can tell because the little white rectangle around the layer mask can no longer be seen.

now i can transform/adjust the contents of the cutout solely “within” the cutout, and i don’t have to worry about changing where the cutout is located in relation to the overall gif. when transforming, make sure all the frames of your gif are selected. like select the whole group and not just an individual layer, basically.

i’ve seen a lot of how to combine and cut out gifs tutorials on this website, and here is a really good one that i know sully also used <3 big shoutout to all the photoshop queens being inspired by each other!! however i haven’t seen anything that mentioned the linked vs. unlinked layer masks, which i really feel like deserves a shoutout. you don’t have to crop your gifs out perfectly every time, you can always adjust them later. for demonstration, i’ve positioned abaddon in a few different positions with an unlinked layer mask.

step 5: creating the outline

so in order to emphasize the shape of the cutout (the knight), i simply delete the white space surrounding the picture of the knight in the original silhouette that i used. magic wand tool + delete. you can also make a new layer, then paint bucket tool it. many ways to do the same thing.

now with only the knight on a transparent background, i double click the layer to pull up the effects. select outer glow. i used these settings:

when you are doing this, make sure you are on frame one of the frame animation and the “propagate frame one setting” is selected, otherwise you might end up only applying the effect to one out of your many frames, which blows.

then i go change the fill setting to 0%, BUT i leave opacity at 100%. fill is basically like opacity, but it doesn’t affect layer effects (whereas opacity does). so you basically get only the outline but not the black. you can also set the blending mode of the layer to screen and get the same effect, etc, etc. feel free to adjust however you see fit, in addition to the outer glow settings.

i move this layer over a couple pixels to give it the little offset effect, but you don’t have to.

step 6: adding the text

okay the two fonts i used are avenir and perla. i think a LOT of gifmakers use them because they’re really pretty.

i make TWO different text layers, one with avenir in a smaller size and one with perla in a bigger size. this is because for the perla one, i’m going to be changing the blending mode whereas i don’t want to be changing the blending mode for the smaller text. i position the text where i want it to be and make sure the perla font is in the color i like:

then i change the blending mode of the fancy text (perla) to difference. ONLY that layer, and again make sure to check “propagate frame 1″ and make changes on the first frame to apply the change to all of your frames.

but i still don’t think it produces enough of a difference. so i right click on the text layer for knights of hell, and then go to: select pixels.

then i click the curves adjustment layer. this will automatically make a curves layer with a layer mask that occludes everything BUT the area you selected. beautiful. i drag the curves around until i get enough of a difference that i like. normally i make the lights lighter and the darks darker. yeehaw.

again there are sooooo many different ways to achieve the same effect on photoshop. this is just want comes easiest to me, and it’s totally okay if you find a different way that works better for you at producing the contrast you want or the colors you want.

step 7: export and cry

NOW you can convert everything to a video timeline, put your video frame layers to smart objects, and then apply your finishing sharpening filters. export, cry, and hope tumblr compression doesn’t screw you over.

hopefully this was helpful! pls like... idk support my edits if you found this helpful or reblog this post. feel free to dm me about how u do some of the text effects as well bc i’m always trying to learn new things and i am by no means an expert on like. any of this.

aria please go write your fucking thesis before i delete this entire tutorial challenge. :D

#subtledean #THIS IS FOR YOU #I FEEL LIKE THIS TUTORIAL HAS MORE WORDS THAN UR THESIS ATM SO!!! #tutorials #mine #idk what to tag this but PLS pls pls feel free to talk to me abt ph*toshop #or ask for help or point me towards other tutorials <3 #shoutout to sully too its in there somewhere #resources #100n #ps

[wenellyb]

I have a general comment to make about the whole Sebastian thing, not on the Instagram picture, because it is not my place to comment, but a general comment about dealing with racism in the fandom, and some of the behavior I have seen on Tumblr.

I have a story to share first and it's not really related to fandoms, or shipping Sambucky or even Sebastian Stan directly but it's about how White people see racism, so I hope some people will read this and think about it.

I just want to say one thing... if you want to comment this, please read until the end before you do.

And please bear in mind that I'm not talking for anybody else but only my own experience and my opinion.

I see a lot of people get defensive when racism is called out in the fandom,whether it is them or a celebrity they love, and a lot of them try to deny it, or try to find excuses.

I understand why they do it, but it's really not the right way. The correct way is to sit down, listen, think about it and THEN only then can you deny or accept the accusations.

Here’s the story:

I was once with my group of friends and I don't know what prompted the question but they asked me if I thought all White people were racist. And you can guess it, I'm the only Black woman in my group of friends. We're all French and 5 of my friends have Asian orgins (Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos) and 3 of my Friends are White. Just planting the decor, lol.

I don't know why they asked, but we're always having debates like these on different topics so i just answered...

I told them that yes, that I thought all White people are racists, and that racism is not just hating all Black people, or all non-White people, but also includes a multitude of other aspects that enables racism to prosper.

It can be some unconscious feeling that you or White people in general are a tiny/ a lot better than Black people, it can be making or laughing at racists jokes, it can be denying racism even exists anymore: " But it's 2021, those kind of things don't exist anymore" this is also harmful, because then when your friends come talking to you complain about an encounter that was racist.... you will minimize it because "racism doesn't exist anymore so it can't be racist" so even though your intentions may not be bad... You are protecting the racists, intentionally or not etc...

There are so many more aspects to racism than just being a far right extemist who hates all foreigners. Racists don't only look like that.

I won't expand on this, but there are many more aspects, I mean I could expand, but it's not the point of my posts, the point of my post is that they asked me and I made a mini essay to explain that the way I see it, there are "levels" of racism (for lack of a better word), and that in that aspect, all White people were racist. People think that you need to be a far right white supremacist, to be racist, you really don’t.

And I told my White female friend, let's call her Alice, that she was the only White person I knew who wasn't racist (implying that my other two friends were racist).

To be honest, I don't think that all White people are racist, my uncle is White and he's the furthest from racist you'll ever find, but I said it anyway because otherwise some people would never question themselves. If I say this people will either get defensive and deny it, or reflect on it and try to assess if they have some internalized stuff they didn't explore and didn't know. But if I say that not all White people are racists, my friends would have directly thought they were off the hook.

What I do believe is that a lot of people are racist and just don’t realize it because they only think about the "extreme" cases of racism.

So I said to my friends that I thought all white poeple were racist and two things happened, and I wasn't expecting any of it:

- My White male friend, let's call him Pierre, listened carefully, and said that in what I had described, he admitted that he was indeed racist, he acknowledged that he did have some prejudice if he was being honest, and also that he had made some racists jokes so that even though he never considered himself racist, hearing what I was saying he said that on some levels, he was indeed racist.

Bear in mind that this is the friend whose favorite character in Black Panther was Martin Freeman, and had already argued in other conversations that positive discrimination made it difficult for White straight Men to find a job (When by the way he has never struggled to find a job a day in his life so go figure, besides there is no postive discrimination policies in France or anything, so I don't even know why he said that).

So knowing my friend, I knew he had some kind of prejudice, obviously, I just didn't think he would really think about what I was saying and admit it.

This was kind of a big deal, and I would never have thought that he would have admitted it, I thought he was the one I would have to argue with, but nope, he listened.

- Then my friend Alice, the one I had told was the only White Person I knew who wasn't racist, got mad and got defensive, even though she was the only one I hadn't called racist to her face. I said specifically she was the one White person I knew who wasn't racist because from previous discussions she was the most open when it came to discuss issues on racism.

However, she's the one who wouldn't really listen and said that I should not generalize about all White poeple, all that kind of stuff, so eventually I had to apologize to her and told her "It's not because all White People I know are racist that all White people are". I had to rephrase this way.

A few months later, I received a message from my friend Pierre, he's Alice's boyfriend by the way. He texted me that they were having Sunday lunch with her family, and someone asked Alice about a Black woman she knew, and Alice answered " She's pretty for a Black girl"...

So many things to unpack, the violence of those words thrown around so casually, those words being said by someone who doesn't consider herself racist, and also, the fact that I would have never known this if her own boyfriend hadn't texted me this.

"She is pretty for a Black girl" is one of the most disgusting and White Supremacist thing she could have said: All Black people/women are ugly by default but that girl is a little bit over that standard?" I don't know any context where that sentence isn't awful.

And also, I'm her friend, am I supposed to be relieved that maybe I'm in the basket of the "pretty ones" or should I consider myself as a member of the other crowd?

There's no way around it, what she said was so f*cked up.

This is why your " I can't be racist I have a Black friend" doesn't mean anything by the way. It doesn't mean anything. She's one of my closest friends.. we had a group trip together for my birthday. So she's not a casual friend, she was in my close group of friends.

The only silver lining is that by doing this, she exactly proved my point.

So according to you, who's the "ally"?

A White guy who recognizes he has prejudice and works on his racism and will call it out when he sees it, even if it's coming from his own girlfriend?

Or a White woman who considers herself an "ally" and doesn't think she is racist, but in the safety of her home doesn't hesitate to say racist stuff when she is surrounded by her White relatives?

It's no use being an "ally" if you're going to be defensive and deny everything or forget you're an ally the minute it is your favorite celebrity being called out.

Getting defensive whenever people start talking about racism is suspicious. If you feel called out, think about it, work on yourself and find out if what you’re being called out for is legitimate or not. And you know what maybe it isn’t? Maybe you Tumblr user X are not racist or you don't have prejudice, but you will never know if you don’t ask yourself and shut down the discussion from the beginning.

Just after the picture was posted a lot of people had already chosen their camp.

Even if you first reaction is defensiveness and wanting to deny it all, the first step should always be to sit back and think about it, and it's not only about racism, you listen first, think about it, and THEN and only then do you deny it or confirm it. Nobody is perfect, but the people who choose to stay obtuse in certain situations are really not helping and are by far the worst.

Stop finding excuses for Sebastian, of course don't go on his Instagram, don't harrass him, don't insult him... But also stop finding him excuses before you have taken the step to listen to the people who have something to say about it. Listen first, you’ll find the excuses later.

Also, most probably the people who are calling him out here on Tumblr are not the ones going on his Instagram to harass him (well at least I hope not) so why can't we have the conversation here?

We can have the conversations here on Tumblr, and discuss it... But the discussions will go nowhere if everybody just gets defensive.

Same thing when we call out racism in the fandom... Your first reaction shouldn't be to get defensive but to listen, I’m taking the example of the MCU but if we say there was racism in the Stucky fandom, don’t try to make it seem like there’s a Sambucky VS Stucky “ship war”, listen to why people are saying this, and then you can draw you own conclusions.

Here, for the Sebastian story, let's listen to what Buddhist people have to say, first. Maybe they will say the post was problematic maybe not... And we'll learn something.

My first thought is also to get defensive when I read a post and feel called out, but that's not the correct way, you may have some prejudice and not even realize it, or realize it and be in denial...

This might be contreversial but it is my opinion that most people are not hardcore racists. But their unwillingness to acknowledge their racist tendencies, working on it... or even staying silent when blatant racism is on display is what enables racism to live long and prosper.

On Twitter or other Social Media people will be openly racist without a problem, but Tumblr prides itself in being open and tolerant, but when it comes to really calling out racism, then it’s crickets-

If you don't want to do anything about racism... It's ok, I really mean it... It is ok.

If it doesn't disturb you when the non-White characters are treated differently in your fandoms it is ok, I'm serious... If you want to enjoy your Tumblr life without thinking about racism it is more than fine, you really have no obligation... It’s ok to stay away from some conversations. 

But please... please, please don't stand in the way of people who are trying to do something about it. 

And most importantly don't say you want to fight racism or that you are an "ally" but when you are called out or someone else is called out, you try to minimize everythin with "Not everything had to be about race"

Yes, not everything has to do with racism but you'll never know if you don't sit down and think about it first. Maybe Seb’s post wasn’t offensive, I don’t know. But how will we know if it was or not if we don’t listen to the people who are affected by that post?

This isn't even really about Seb himself but about the way some people in the fandom behave... How people just go to extremes without even trying to discuss first.

I love Seb as an actor, but I don’t know him and I’ll probably never meet him, I won’t spend the next days trying to defend him or accuse him, he and I live different lives that will never intersect, and it's fine like that, but I will listen to people who have been affected by his post and have something to say about it.

Seb will be fine, his career will be fine, he probably even has someone handling his social media... But the people on Tumblr who have to accept racism in silence and have had to do it for years will not be fine, if the coversations keep getting shut down before they even start. 

Everyone skipped the listening part and jumped to the defending or condemning part. And also a lot of things from the past re-surfaced (take a knee post, some instagram likes I guees) which makes it even more difficult if people skip the listening part.

To me, there are 2 groups of people, people who have prejudice and want to do something about it and people who have prejudice but don't want to do anýthing about it...

I don't know in which group Seb is and I don't know him so I won't be spending days trying to figure it out... 

But from what I've seen, at least in the MCU and Star Wars fandoms, I know in which group a lot of people in Tumblr users are and if some of them want to switch groups, it’s never too late.

#fandom racism #sebasian stan #long post #I didn’t insist on harrassement and all but of course never harrass anybody on the Internet celebrity or not. #I tried to put too many things in there.. I hope #it's still understandable #MCU fandom #tfatws #I know this is long #And I know that I have repeated some stuff... But some stuff needed to be repeated #Sometime we need to sit down and think about why people do the things that they do... #bucky barnes